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| The Thunder Bird, Dromornis (Nobu Tamura) |
Perhaps for tourism purposes, Australia has been doing its best to promote the Thunder Bird as the largest prehistoric bird that ever lived, proposing an upper-bound weight for adults of a full half a ton (which would vault Dromornis over Aepyornis in the power ratings) and suggesting that it was even taller than the Giant Moa of New Zealand. Those may be overstatements, but the fact remains that Dromornis was a huge bird, surprisingly not related as much to modern Australian ostriches as to smaller ducks and geese.
Unlike these other giant birds of prehistoric times, which (because of their lack of natural defenses) succumbed to hunting by early human settlers, the Thunder Bird seems to have gone extinct all on its own--perhaps because of climatic changes during the Pliocene epoch that impacted its presumed herbivorous diet.
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Bob
Strauss is a freelance writer and book author; one of his
specialties is explaining scientific concepts and discoveries to
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Bob
Strauss is the author of two best-selling question-and-answer
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history and culture: The Big Book of What, How and Why (Main Street, 2005) and Who Knew? Hundreds & Hundreds of Questions & Answers for Curious Minds (Sterling Innovation, 2007).