Phororacid “terrible birds” lived in what is now Colombia’s Tatacoa Desert about 12 million years ago, among car-sized armadillos, giant sloths and saber-toothed marsupials.
Recently analyzed fossils have shown that this specimen was much larger than its relatives, with an estimated height of between 1 and 3 meters.
Evolutionary biologist Federico Degrange of Argentina’s Earth Sciences Research Center and his colleagues found that the tibia of the ancient bird was damaged by the teeth of a crocodile relative, Purusaurus, which reached lengths of up to 9 meters.
Phororacos birds are said to have massive beaks that made them appear clumsy with a heavy top. This, as well as their skull anatomy, suggests the birds were efficient predators, they report Noi.md with reference to .
These birds lived on the ground, had limbs adapted for running, and fed mainly on other animals.
It is noted that phororacos disappeared long before the appearance of humans. A bone fragment showed that the animal was 30 percent larger than previously known specimens.
Scientists suspect that this could be a new species, but the limited number of fragments cannot rule out the possibility that it belongs to previously discovered terrifying birds such as Titanis.
