a group of scientists discovered in South Australia the fossil remains of a huge extinct eagle that flew over the oceanic country about 60,000 years ago and that it had powerful 30-centimeter claws that allowed it to hunt animals the size of kangaroos, academic sources reported.
The so-called Gaff’s eagle (Dynatoaetus gaffae), whose wingspan reached three meters, “easily” could hunt “a giant kangaroo juvenile, a large flightless bird or other species of the lost megafauna of that time,” said paleontologist Trevor Worthy, an expert on prehistoric birds and leader of the scientific expedition from Flinders University, in a note.
The largest #Eagle in #Australia today is the Wedge-tailed eagle; but fifty thousand years ago, a much larger #fossil species flew the skies. Introducing Dynatoaetus gaffae, the largest Australian eagle that ever lived. Read the paper at the link below: https://t.co/6s9O02Mdyv pic.twitter.com/CESh4jWBer
— Dr Ellen Mather (@Ellenaetus) March 16, 2023
The scientists of the university center, who related the Gaff’s eagle with the Old World vultures (Aegypiinae) of Africa and Asia and with the eagle of the Philippines – which eats monkeys and is endangered – are considered to be the largest bird of prey on the Australian mainland and potentially the largest continental eagle in the world.
Was the largest bird of prey that ever lived on the continentand probably the largest continental eagle in the entire world, according to new research from Flinders University.
a prehistoric eagle
This extinct specimen was “almost as big as the largest eagles in the world that were found in their day on the islands of New Zealand and Cuba.”including the huge extinct New Zealand Haast’s eagle weighing 13 kilograms,” the statement said.
The scientists made these assertions after finding 28 fossils of this extinct animal two years ago in the Mairs cave, located in a mountainous area in the region of South Australia, during an expedition to visit a vast area in which expeditionaries had previously discovered other four fossils in 1956 and 1969.
The remains of the prehistoric eagle, named after Australian paleontologist Priscilla Gaff, who first described these fossils in her master’s thesis in 2022, they were cross-referenced with other historical fossils found elsewhere in Australia more than half a century ago.
“We were very excited to find many more bones from much of the skeleton to create a better picture and description of these magnificent, long-extinct giant birds,” said Ellen Mather, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Ornithology after participating in the expedition.
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