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The Terror Birds

Sounds ridiculous, right? Birds were only ever scary in the Alfred Hitchcock film and hardly then. But believe it or not the dominant predators in South America for 60 million years were in fact birds. Giant, 10 foot tall, flightless terror birds. It is thought that terror birds evolved from the dinosaurs and hunted the plains and forests of South America from shortly after the fall of the dinosaurs to only two million years ago. These birds also spread into North America and the largest specimen has been found in Texas. In 2006, a skull was discovered in Patagonia. This skull is believed to belong to a previously unknown species of terror bird, and scientists predict that it would have been capable of swallowing an averagely sized dog.

Terror birds were big, vicious and fast. Although scientists cannot be sure, they estimate that the larger of the terror birds would have been capable of speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour.

South America was not the only place to have been home to giant birds. Aside from the Ostrich and Emu, Australia has been home to many large birds throughout history. These would have no doubt been encountered by the early inhabitants of the area. In New Zealand, early Polynesian settlers came across the Moa, twelve foot tall, herbivorous birds. Amazingly these lasted until around 1500, when they were hunted to extinction. Unbelievably, until the arrival of the Maori, the Moa were hunted by a species of giant eagle. The Haast's Eagle had a wingspan of ten feet and was the largest eagle to have ever lived.