The fossilized remains of a giant shuttlecock – three clip the sizing of a modern ostrich and weighing double as much as New Zealand’sextinct giant moa – has been discovered by chance in a cave in easterly Europe , half a universe out from where all old known giant out birds lived .
This is the first evidence that early Europeans lived alongside Brobdingnagian birds , and most likely hound and ate them . It had been thought that giantism in birds only developed on island landmasses such asNew Zealand , Australia , andMadagascar .
The newly described species , Pachystruthio dmanisensis , was previously bed to investigator through a few samples of bones but no one had calculated the size of the tool , and they were stunned when they did .
" When I first matte up the system of weights of the bird whose thigh bone I was hold in my hand , I think it must be a Malagasy [ Madagascan ] elephant bird fossil because no fowl of this size of it have ever been report from Europe , ” explain jumper lead generator Dr Nikita Zelenkov , from the Russian Academy of Sciences , in astatement . In fact , Zelenkov and squad report in theJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology , no bird of this size has ever been identify in the Northern Hemisphere before .
The gargantuan flightless dame would have stand around 3.5 meters ( 11 feet tall ) , and weigh about 450 kilograms ( nearly 1,000 Irish pound ) , about the weight of a full adult male polar bear .
The fogey was found in the Taurida cave in Crimea , on the north coast of the Black Sea . The cave organisation was only expose last summertime when a Modern pike was being built and has also move over the cadaver of mammoth , large Ice Age carnivores like giant cheetah , giant hyena , cavalry sword - toothed Caterpillar , and bison , which have helped date it to between 1.5 million and 1.8 million years old .
This mean it may have a been a vernacular natural event whenHomo erectusfirst touch Europe around 1.2 million years ago . The researchers suggest , thanks to their huge sizing , they may have been a worthful germ of food , as well as provide bones for instrument , feathers , and eggshells .
They calculated its total size and weight using a formula found on the sizing of its 40 - centimeter - long ( ~16 - inch ) femur , or thigh bone , one of the most commonly used bones to count on body deal and height due to its distance .
The now extinct flightless elephant bird of Madagascar were huge . AepyornisandMullerorniswere around 3 time ( 10 ft ) magniloquent and librate 500 kilograms ( 1,100 pound sterling ) , whileVorombe titanwas conceive to weigh up to 800 kg ( 1,760 quid ) . However , their massive size handicap their speed , and though there is evidencehumans dwell alongside themfor millennia , it ’s belike well-off hunting helped wipe them out in the end .
