Monster of prehistory Giant terror bird made South America unsafe

12 million years ago, a giant prehistoric crocodile killed the largest "terror bird" ever found, researchers discovered when analyzing a 20-year-old fossil from Colombia. The remains have only now been assigned to a species.

For twenty years, the find from the Colombian Tatacoa Desert remained unidentified. It was not until 2023 that it was analyzed as the fossilized lower leg bones of a terror bird. Now a team of researchers has created a three-dimensional, virtual model based on the fossil - and has come to a sensational conclusion: it could be the largest known specimen of this species.

The researchers have published their findings in a study in the journal "Papers in Palaeontology".

Terror birds (Phorusrhacidae) made South America unsafe around 12 million years ago, were several meters tall, weighed up to 160 kilograms and were carnivores. "Terror birds lived on the ground, had limbs suitable for walking and fed mainly on other animals," says Siobhàn Cooke from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-author of the study in a press release.

Tooth marks from the monster crocodile

The fossils analyzed indicate that the extinct ratites could have been 5 to 20 percent larger than previously assumed, i.e. up to 3 meters high.

And the research team found another one during the investigation. A special feature: the remains show what are believed to be the teeth marks of a Purussaurus, an extinct species of crocodile that could grow up to nine meters long. "We suspect that the terror bird died twelve million years ago as a result of its injuries, which are indicative of crocodiles in terms of size," says Cooke.

Today the site is a desert, but experts believe that it was once a region full of meandering rivers. The discovery helps Cooke to imagine an environment that no longer exists in nature.