Standing up to 3 meters in height and sporting razor-sharp claws as well as a beak capable of piercing a human’s skull, terror birds were a group of enormous predatory flightless birds which roamed the Earth from 53 million years ago to as recently as 100,000 years ago.
Dwarfing even today’s ostriches, these ferocious creatures would have been a force to be reckoned with.
Now, in a world-first, paleontologists have discovered what are believed to be the first ever fossilized terror bird footprints at a site in Argentina.
Dating back approximately 8 million years, the prints are surprisingly well-preserved and are thought to have been left by a member of the Mesembriornithinae subspecies.
Footprints might not seem like much to go on, but quite a lot can be ascertained from them.
In this case, the researchers believe that this particular terror bird had been running across a mudflat at around 2.74 meters per second and weighed approximately 55kg.
Source: Phys.org
Ron S
Ahh yes, the subspecies Mebrainhasbriarsinitaye, mmmyes mmmyes, I am adequately familiar with the evolutionary extrapolations, ecological upticks and jurassic jugglings of said “Terror Bird”. Due to quantum entanglements of my hyperactive hyperbole, I surmise the outcome of this oversized outrageous ostrich still exists today under a newly shortened stature and newly shortened genome, “Meleagris”… AKA turkey… And might I say they are especially delicious when packed with Stove-Top stuffing and cooked to moist perfection in an oven bag. Mmmmmmm, terror bird 🤤🍗
Dana B
Isn’t interesting how science is okay with footprints being an amazing paleontological find and all the information which can be extrapolated from footprints leading to deductions about the size, weight, and other physical characteristics and in some cases the only record of the animal is their footprints or a tooth and that’s enough for a species to exist but no video, no one has ever seen one or knows exactly how they behaved but scientists piece all that together. Yet the same exact scientific method is not recognized by science for Bigfoot. Follow the Science or the money? .
William L
Don’t start pointing out anything obvious!
Those “human” footprints just had to be some 7 foot tall homeless guy in the woods on February through the snow! 😂
Dave P
I’m thinking along the same as you. It’s clear what the red headed giants of 100,000 years ago had for thanksgiving dinner .
Matthew W
They could be ridden and eaten. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOrf31We4ho
Charles R
That’s some funny comment Ron S. and Dana B you are so correct. So what happened to these enormous killer birds that existed for 53 million years and then they were gone 100k years ago or maybe longer if they find a newer date. At 2.74 m/second, this is slower than Patty was walking back in Oct. 1967. Maybe the Bigfoots got them. Heck modern humans were clever enough to use spears and take them out.