The massive bird was adapted for swimming underwater and may have gone extinct when lakes dried up.
An Ice Age bird that weighed twice as much as an ostrich was adapted for the water, say a team of researchers who recently studied fossils from creature, which went extinct about 45,000 years ago. Based on bones of Genyornis newtoni found in South Australia’s Lake Callabonna , the animal weighed about 500 pounds , making it five times as heavy as the fearsome southern cassowary. The recent trove of remains, including a nearly foot-long skull, was found in 2019.
“The new skull material for this Genyornis has revealed a goose-like bill and several specialist features of the skull that are related to the bird submerging its skull in the water. This bird must have foraged in the water at least some of the time, perhaps eating soft aquatic weeds or new plant shoots. It also has hindlimb adaptations for traveling across hard ground, and might have travelled from lake to lake, eating fruits and the like along the way.
Francis Environment Far North South Australian Heritage Register Genyornis Phoebe Mcinerney Lake Callabonna Gizmodo
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