A Giant Fossil Bird Was Discovered In The Tavrida Cave In The Crimea - The Largest In The Northern Hemisphere - Alternative View

A Giant Fossil Bird Was Discovered In The Tavrida Cave In The Crimea - The Largest In The Northern Hemisphere - Alternative View
A Giant Fossil Bird Was Discovered In The Tavrida Cave In The Crimea - The Largest In The Northern Hemisphere - Alternative View

Video: A Giant Fossil Bird Was Discovered In The Tavrida Cave In The Crimea - The Largest In The Northern Hemisphere - Alternative View

Video: A Giant Fossil Bird Was Discovered In The Tavrida Cave In The Crimea - The Largest In The Northern Hemisphere - Alternative View
Video: Crimea. The Way Home. Documentary by Andrey Kondrashev 2024, March
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A group of researchers from the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Crimean Federal University described the bones of a giant flightless bird Pachystruthio dmanisensis, which was extinct in the Pleistocene in the Crimea, from the recently discovered Tavrida cave, which was at least three times the weight of a modern African ostrich. According to calculations, the body weight of the Crimean feathered giant was close to 450 kg, while the largest of the modern birds - the African ostrich - weighs no more than 150 kg. Thus, this Crimean bird was not inferior in size to the Madagascar epyornis and significantly exceeded the giant New Zealand moa, which weighed no more than 270 kg. In height, pachistrutio could reach 3.5 meters. Analysis of fossil materials allows us to concludethat these gigantic birds were once quite widespread in the Northern Hemisphere in general and Europe in particular.

The age of the find was established from the remains of mammals found in the Tavrida Cave together with pachistrutio and studied by Russian specialists under the leadership of the director of the Paleontological Institute, Academician Alexei Lopatin. It is estimated to be approximately 1.5-1.8 million years old (Early Pleistocene). Around this time, the first representatives of the people of the genus Homo settled from Africa to Asia and, thus, giant birds had to exist side by side with ancient man. This is confirmed by the discovery of pachistrutio together with human bones at the Dmanisi site in Georgia. The Crimean giant bird belongs to the same species that was described from Dmanisi. However, there have been no previous attempts to calculate the body weight of these giants, which were considered simply large ostriches. According to Nikita Zelenkov, head of the Paleo-Nithology Office of the Paleontological Institute, one of the authors of the study, new materials indicate that the Black Sea giants represented a separate evolutionary line of flightless birds. Their family ties are still not entirely clear.

The femur of Pachystruthio compared to that of the modern African ostrich (different angles)
The femur of Pachystruthio compared to that of the modern African ostrich (different angles)

The femur of Pachystruthio compared to that of the modern African ostrich (different angles).

Despite its enormous size, pachistrutio, apparently, ran relatively well, which markedly differed from epyornis and the largest moa, which were characterized by the so-called graviportal type of locomotion, when the heavy animal moves slowly and is not capable of running fast. This feature can be explained by the fact that, unlike the island giants, the pachistrutio lived in continental conditions together with large Pleistocene predators, such as saber-toothed cats, homotheria or giant hyenas, whose bones were also found in the Taurida Cave.

The evolutionary history of pachistrutio remains unclear. The oldest bones of representatives of this evolutionary line are known from the more ancient Pleistocene deposits of Transcaucasia and Turkey. Thus, these giants entered the Northern Black Sea region via the Caucasus - undoubtedly the same way as ancient man. The appearance of gigantic birds in the Crimea occurs at a time when the climate in the Ciscaucasia and in the south of Eastern Europe became drier, and the steppes became widespread. The subsequent disappearance of giant birds in the middle of the Pleistocene is hardly associated with human impact, but rather may be the result of changes in environmental conditions, largely due to climatic changes.

The research is published in the international peer-reviewed journal of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2019. V. 39. No. 2). [Zelenkov NV, Lavrov AV, Startsev DB, Vislobokova IA, Lopatin AV A giant early Pleistocene bird from eastern Europe: unexpected component of terrestrial faunas at the time of early Homo arrival // Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 2019. V. 39. No. 2. e1605521]

The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 18-74-10081).