A study published March 16 in the Journal of Ornithology details how a team of fossil hunters from Flinders University in Australia put together this bird’s story. Four large fossilized bones were collected in Mairs Cave southern Australia’s Flinders Ranges as far back as 1956 and 1969. The authors found an additional 28 bones scattered among the boulders in the site whoch helped them create a better picture of this giant extinct bird.
This now extinct raptor is closely related to Old World vultures that prowled Africa and Asia during the Pleistocene. In today’s fauna, its closest relative is likely the critically endangered monkey-munching Philippine Eagle. During the late Pleistocene Epoch, when giant megafauna like the mammoth roamed the Earth and ice sheets and glaciers were growing, Dynatoaetuswas likely the top avian predator on the planet.
Dynatoaetus and another recently described smaller bird named Cryptogyps represent a new genera of raptors that are unique to Australia.
Most of Australia’s eagles and vultures like the Dynatoaetus went extinct about 50,000 years ago, along with most of the continents’s megafauna. One 2020 study found that a possible explanation is extreme environmental change and deterioration (loss of water, increased burning of trees and grass, etc.) that wiped out at least 13 super-sized megafauna species, including the world’s largest wombats and kangaroos.
Source: www.popsci.com
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