Giant, flightless birds stalked the Arctic swamps 53 million years ago

The discovery of a single toe bone paints a picture of a hulking, ancient bird striding through a warm Arctic.

G. steini, a giant bird of the extinct genus Gastornis, is seen in this 1917 artist's rendering

Scientists have found what could be Big Bird's prehistoric ancestor on an island in the Arctic Circle.

Giant, flightless birds with horse-size heads probably stalked the Arctic some 53 million years ago when the it was a balmy swamp, according to a study published Friday in the journal Scientific Reports.

In fact, scientists' suspicions are based on a single toe bone found on Canada's Ellesmere Island in the 1970s. That toe bone is a perfect match for Gastornis, an ancient bird that lived in what is now Wyoming in North America during the same time period, according to researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Colorado at Boulder

"I couldn't tell the Wyoming specimens from the Ellesmere specimen, even though it was found roughly 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) to the north," study co-author Thomas Stidham of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a statement.

The ancient bird was probably a fearsome sight.

"Based on skeletal evidence, scientists know that Gastornis was built like a NFL lineman, standing around six feet tall, and weighing several hundred pounds," writes The Christian Science Monitor. "Its head was approximately the size of a modern day horse’s head."

Researchers originally speculated that the bird was a carnivore and used its size to intimidate predators. More recently, scientists have suggested it was, in fact, an herbivore, and used its giant beak to rip apart foliage, nuts, seeds, and fruit.

The study also found a second, smaller, ancient bird in the Arctic, Presbyornis. This bird, whose existence there is also based on a single bone, a fossilized humerus, or upper wing bone, was smaller than Gastornis. It may have looked like a prehistoric duck or goose.

“We knew there were a few bird fossils from up there, but we also knew they were extremely rare,” said Jaelyn Eberle, of the University of Colorado, one of the study’s authors, in a statement.

Today, Canada's Ellesmere Island, adjacent to Greenland, is one of the most remote, dry, and cold places on Earth, with winter temperatures dropping to negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

But it was a very different place 53 million years ago when Gastornis and Presbyornis roamed the Earth. During the Eocene epoch, Ellesmere would have been a warm swamp similar to the cypress swamps found in the southeastern US, according to the study. And fossil evidence suggests the area was rife with flora and fauna, including turtles, alligators, primates, tapirs, and even large hippo-like and rhino-like mammals.

In fact, Ellesmere's ancient climate may provide scientists a glimpse of what climate change may bring to Earth's coldest regions.

“I’m not suggesting there will be a return of alligators and giant tortoises to Ellesmere Island any time soon, said Ms. Eberle, “But what we know about past warm intervals in the Arctic can give us a much better idea about what to expect in terms of changing plant and animal populations there in the future.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Giant, flightless birds stalked the Arctic swamps 53 million years ago
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0217/Giant-flightless-birds-stalked-the-Arctic-swamps-53-million-years-ago
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe