Millions of years ago, in the territory that today includes the region of South America, the phororrhacids lived, a family of carnivorous birds that could measure between one and three meters in height. There are dozens of species identified and the scientific community has unofficially grouped them under the nickname “terror birds,” because they all have a large sharp beak and a body adapted to running.
The proportions of the phororrhacids were perhaps larger than previously estimated. The analysis of a fossil of one of these terror birds (Phorusrhacidae Cariamiformes) indicates that its size was up to 20% larger than the largest phororrhacid specimen found to date. The results of the study were published in the scientific journal Paleontology.
The fossil is a fragment of a tibia. It was found 20 years ago in the Tatacoa Desert, Colombia, a site rich in similar fossils. Only until 2023 was it recognized as part of a phororrhacid and by November 2024, after arduous research, the species to which it belonged was identified.
The end of the left tibiotarsus was used to create a three-dimensional model of the giant bird. It dominated its environment approximately 12 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch. This particular specimen probably died from a wound inflicted by an even larger predator. Tooth marks present on the fossil indicate that perhaps a 30-foot alligator of the genus Purussaurusnative to South America and now extinct, hurt one of its powerful legs.
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