Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Animal of the Day
Posted by Mark on Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 9:00 AM
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Yeah it's sad that Edith is gone now, but I remember that when we were feeling sad she'd always distract us with a cool animal, so let's focus on the Phorusrhacid, or Terror Bird. Here's what the critics (or that one article) say(s):
... [G]iant predators... that once dominated South America...Scientists say the Terror Bird is extinct, but I say it's waiting...
Terror birds were the biggest birds the world has ever seen...
"Some of these birds had skulls that were two and a half feet [almost a meter] in length. [They] were colossal animals."
The new, currently unnamed species stood about ten feet (three meters) tall and had a head as big as that of a horse.
The largest terror birds could likely swallow dog-size prey in a single gulp, experts say.
The bird's most striking feature—literally—was its giant nose, a roughly 18-inch (46-centimeter) beak with a sharp, curving hook shaped like an eagle's beak.
Whether the flightless birds used their beaks to impale or bludgeon their prey is unknown... But a single hit from their "massive skull[s] would have killed anything immediately."
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