Some of the 
more recently discovered species were truly enormous. The ones in my novel, THE FLOCK were the only North American version of terror bird yet discovered, Titanis walleri. These topped out at around 8 feet tall at the largest. But a newly identified species from South America was truly gigantic, topping out at over ten feet tall and having the largest known skull of any bird yet found in the fossil record. (That's the culprit in the sculpture here.)
As people like to say, Nature really did find a way. In this case, to bring back the theropod predators of the Cretaceous in a later age.
Today, the closest thing that we have to these amazing predators is the Secretary bird. Maybe Mother Nature will mold that creature anew into something resembling the tyrant beasts of 65 million years ago.
Whoa, dudes! Looks familiar!
10 ft? With a maw big enough to swallow a man with little or no biting. Glad they are extinct.
ReplyDeleteAn article I read says that they'd have had no problem swallowing a dog in one piece.
ReplyDeleteLet's see what the Producers and Director do with the movie. We got a few dogs missing in that one.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll send that silhouette list to the producers.
ReplyDeleteA friend was telling me about the Secretary bird only recently. Fascinating creatures.
ReplyDeleteEvolution likes to repeat a successful body type. The old terror birds were ratites (ostriches, emus, cassowaries and the like). But classic raptors could easily take the same form and function as the old terror bird. Sooner or later if humans don't exterminate too many birds, the theropod dinosaurs will return.
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