Ancient Europeans lived alongside a half-ton bird nearly 12 feet tall

cnn ^ | June 26, 2019 | Ashley Strickland,

[BenLurkin]

Inside a Crimean cave was a gigantic ancient mystery just waiting to be uncovered: a bird so large that it weighed nearly as much as an adult polar bear.

Giant birds once roamed Madagascar, New Zealand and Australia. The latest fossil find, an intriguing fossilized femur, was recently found in Taurida Cave on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

It was discovered along with other fossils, including bison bones, that helped researchers date the now-extinct giant bird to between 1.5 million and 2 million years ago.

When the first early human ancestors arrived in Europe, they might have encountered these birds. The researchers think the bird probably reached the Black Sea region by crossing Turkey and the Southern Caucasus.

The large birds could have provided early humans with meat, bones, feathers and eggshells.

This is the first time researchers have found a bird like this in Earth's Northern Hemisphere and the first time the size of the bird, named Pachystruthio dmanisensis, has been identified.

It probably stood 11½ feet tall and couldn't fly -- but this bird was fast. It was similar to elephant birds that went extinct in the 1700s, which were usually hindered by size when it came to speed, but the femur found as part of the fossil was long and slender, making for a better runner.

The femur is similar to that of the modern ostrich, which can reach a top speed of 43 miles per hour.

[BenLurkin]

I think people should have put saddles on them on ridden.

[Celtic Conservative]

Did it taste like chicken?

CC

[Rio]

You’d need a really big oven.

[Long Jon No Silver]

[Rodm]

Paging Col. Sanders

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BL, bfl.

[Celtic Conservative]

I was thinking spit roasted over a bonfire.

Mmmm!

CC

[SunkenCiv]

...and imagine the size of the slaw bucket.

[Celtic Conservative]

Thats a big bucket.

CC

[dsrtsage]

[Telepathic Intruder]

"It probably stood 11½ feet tall and couldn't fly -- but this bird was fast."

It was the roller skates.

[gundog]

In the dark days before mashed potatoes and gravy....

[17th Miss Regt]

Was it on the no fly list?

[Pelham]

It only ate Neanderthals.

[real saxophonist]

[Zhang Fei]

[ArtDodger]

The basis for the legend of the Roc.

[BenLurkin]

The thought did occur to me.

[Agatsu77]

Of course it tasted like chicken.