Stirton Thunderbird

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stirton Thunderbird
Dromornis stirtoni

Dromornis stirtoni

Temporal occurrence
Late Miocene
8 to 6 million years
Locations
Systematics
Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
Birds (aves)
New-jawed birds (Neognathae)
Goose birds (Anseriformes)
Thunderbirds (Dromornithidae)
Stirton Thunderbird
Scientific name
Dromornis stirtoni
Vickers-Rich , 1979

The Stirton-Thunderbird ( . English : Stirton's Thunder Bird) ( Dromornis stirtoni ) belongs to the group Dromornithiformes that the order of Anseriformes is related (Anseriformes) - not, as their appearance suggests, the ratites . The species belonged to the megafauna in Australia and lived 8 to 6 million years ago. Fossil remains of the bird are best known from the Alcoota Fossil Beds in Central Australia .

Patricia Vickers-Rich named it in honor of Ruben Arthur Stirton .

features

Dromornis stirtoni was one of the heaviest known birds in the history of the earth with a height of 2.7 to 2.8 meters and an estimated weight of up to 650 kg . The species shows a pronounced sexual dimorphism , the height of the apex varied insignificantly, but the weight of the hens averaged 451 kg, while the roosters averaged 528 kg. Only the not closely related Malagasy elephant birds Vorombe titan with up to 800 kg and Aepyornis maximus with over 400 kg, perhaps the systematically moderately closely related Brontornis burmeisteri from South America with 350 to 400 kg achieved a comparable weight with about the same height.

Its skull reached a length of 48 to 52 centimeters and was about 25% larger than that of the second largest thunderbird, Bullockornis . Of all the birds, only the skull was the kelenken 71.6 cm larger. The bill was, as in the Paleogene living in Europe and North America Gastornis , well arched and very large compared to the rest of the skull, but not so high and concave as bullockornis .

In contrast to the other thunderbirds, in Dromornis and Bullockornis the first ( atlas ) and second cervical vertebrae ( axis ) have grown together to form a single bone. A lower cervical vertebra was 16.5 cm wide and 12 cm long. The sternum was wider than it was long.

The Stirton thunderbird may have been carnivorous . Its habitat was the open subtropical woodland in northern Australia.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ P. Murray, Patricia Vickers-Rich: Magnificent Mihirungs: The Colossal Flightless Birds of the Australian Dreamtime. Indiana University Press 2004, ISBN 978-0-253-34282-9 , pp. 211.
  2. ↑ Warren D. Handley, Anusuya Chinsamy, Adam M. Yates & Trevor H. Worthy: Sexual dimorphism in the late Miocene mihirung Dromornis stirtoni (Aves: Dromornithidae) from the Alcoota Local Fauna of central Australia. In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Volume 36, 2016 DOI: 10.1080 / 02724634.2016.1180298
  3. ↑ The Greatest Bird of All Time on Science Spectrum .
  4. ↑ Davies, SJJF (2003). "Elephant birds". In Hutchins, Michael. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. 8 Birds I Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins (2 ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. Pp. 103-104.
  5. ↑ Herculano MF Alvarenga and Elizabeth Höfling: Systematic revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes). In: Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia. 43 (4), Sao Paulo 2003, p. 58 left (PDF; 5.6 MB).

literature

Web links