This is Episode Four of a four-part Fascination on actually huge birds. You can hearken to Episode One right here; Episode Two right here; and Episode Three right here.
Flora Lichtman: I don’t need to ruffle any feathers, however that is the easiest way to explain terror birds.
Federico Degrange: Terror birds are f—ing wonderful.
[Music]
There’s no dialogue about it. They are … probably the most, most wonderful group of birds that existed ever.
Lichtman: I’m Flora Lichtman, and that is Scientific American’s Science, Quickly. And immediately is my swan music to huge birds, gargantuan sport, f—ing big feathered pals. It’s the final episode on this four-part collection.
And the chicken on deck for immediately—it’s been on my life listing for some time. I’m squawking about some of the horrifying birds to ever peck out a spot on planet Earth: the fear chicken.
Let me introduce you to our terror chicken knowledgeable.
Degrange: My title is Federico Javier Degrange. Everybody calls me Dino.
Lichtman: Dino is an avian paleontologist in Argentina and he has a particular relationship with terror birds.
Degrange: Oh, I really like them [laughs]. I also have a tattoo of a terror chicken. So they marked me ceaselessly. I like to make use of the phrase weird, which is sort of frequent right here in my nation. We say bizarro. Terror birds are weird birds, stuffed with unique options and uncommon options which will make them much more unusual, extra distinctive.
Lichtman: He says terror birds flew onto the scene round 45 million years in the past. There had been 17 or 18 species within the group—it’s up within the air.
Degrange: They are virtually all from Argentina, however there are some localities in Uruguay and Brazil, and Texas and Florida within the States.
Lichtman: And they received their title, terror birds, as a result of they’re, as soon as once more, f—ing terrifying. They had been the grizzly bears of birds, the good white sharks of the land, Jack the Ripper, however with feathers.
Degrange: The largest ones had been the highest predators in South America, along with the marsupials and terrestrial crocodiles.
Lichtman: And the most important ones had been actual giant—like, 10 toes tall and 400 kilos. The largest species lived in Argentine Patagonia 15 million years in the past, and the story of its discovery may simply be dramatized right into a limited-run podcast.
Sara Bertelli: It was discovered by a highschool pupil, Guillermo Aguirre-Zabala.
Lichtman: This is paleontologist Sara Bertelli. She works in Argentina as nicely and was one of many researchers to scientifically describe the skeleton Guillermo present in 2004.
He was taking part in with a good friend close to the railroad tracks of his village in Patagonia, when he noticed one thing protruding of the bottom. It seemed like a beak with a curved hook on the finish.
Bertelli: So they began to excavate it and that’s how this essential specimen was discovered.
Lichtman: Guillermo then enlisted some assist. He discovered a geologist working in a close-by metropolis. And that geologist then contacted Sara to see if she’d be fascinated by finding out the fossil. Sara had studied huge birds previously, however when she went to see this fossil, she realized it was one thing completely different.
Bertelli: I imply, it was wonderful. And truly being there with the fossil…, it’s a giant rock. I bear in mind I’ve to take a seat so as to maintain this cranium as a result of it’s fairly heavy.
Lichtman: Here’s Dino once more.
Degrange: The cranium of that animal correspond to the most important chicken cranium recognized—71 centimeters lengthy.
Lichtman: That’s two toes. And this outdated chicken’s beak was sharp, too….
Bertelli: Like a knife!
Lichtman: And don’t neglect the nightmarish hook on the finish.
Degrange: This hook is giant, curved, pointy. It’s actually good to stab and pierce meat.
Lichtman: But how precisely did they use that face weapon. That’s what Dino needed to know. So he and a few colleagues studied the skulls of big terror birds they usually discovered one thing actually unusual. This will get very detailed very quick, however the chicken’s-eye view. For most residing birds, there’s some flexibility within the cranium, together with on the hinge the place the beak attaches to the cranium, so the beak can transfer a bit.
But Dino’s analysis exhibits that it’s completely different for giant terror birds. Their beak is fused to their cranium, kinda like, say, an ax blade is fused to a picket deal with. So you guessed it.
Degrange: They used the beak as an ax to kill prey. They mainly killed the prey utilizing hatchet-like actions and strike them down with the beak.
Lichtman: This is how they actually earn their title
Degrange: That’s why they’re “terror birds.”
[Music]
Lichtman: So image a 400-pound chicken working at you at 25 miles per hour—as a result of, by the best way, they had been quick too.
Degrange: And think about that in your working, that animal will probably be subsequent to you and can begin to hitting you with their beak like an ax. After the primary strike, in all probability you’ll begin feeling nothing, and you may be down with that enormous chicken stepping on you and tearing you aside, and eat you. That is a terror chicken.
Lichtman: Fortunately, individuals by no means needed to run from big terror birds in actual life. These birds didn’t overlap with individuals. Other mammals weren’t so fortunate.
Degrange: There had been different ungulates that had been round, like small horses, that completely match within the prey for a big terror chicken.
Lichtman: These homicide birds had been one-of-a-kind in avian historical past.
Degrange: No different birds, extant or fossil, in the entire historical past of birds, occupy the area of interest of this hyper-predator—solely the fear birds.
Lichtman: They’re a reminder that what we see flapping round us immediately is only a chicken dropping within the bucket of what has come earlier than.
Degrange: Fossil animals are completely different as a result of they’re extra—most intriguing. You can not speak with them. You cannot see how they behave. Personally I believe that’s what’s the most wonderful a part of being a paleontologist, as a result of you must think about and, and, and hypothesize primarily based on analysis. It’s like, so this animal truly existed? Yes, it existed.
Lichtman: That goes for all of the extinct bizarro birds we talked about over the previous few episodes. They defy our notion of what it means to be a chicken. Whether it was their dimension or stabbyness, their intercontinental gliding or their girth, they characterize marvelous evolutionary wingtip of the avian world.
You’ve simply listened to the ultimate episode in a four-part Science, Quickly fascination on actually huge birds. But earlier than I fly the coop, l’ve been proud as a peacock to be your host.
Science, Quickly is produced by Jeff DelViscio, Tulika Bose and Kelso Harper. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Don’t neglect to subscribe to Science, Quickly wherever you get your podcasts. Head over to ScientificAmerican.com for in-depth science information.
For Science, Quickly—I’m Flora Lichtman.
