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First Australians ate giant eggs of huge flightless birds, ancient proteins confirm
ScienceDaily ^ | May 25, 2022 | University of Cambridge

Posted on 06/01/2022 11:48:05 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

Proteins extracted from fragments of prehistoric eggshell found in the Australian sands confirm that the continent’s earliest humans consumed the eggs of a two-metre tall bird that disappeared into extinction over 47,000 years ago.

Burn marks discovered on scraps of ancient shell several years ago suggested the first Australians cooked and ate large eggs from a long-extinct bird – leading to fierce debate over the species that laid them.

Now, an international team led by scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Turin have placed the animal on the evolutionary tree by comparing the protein sequences from powdered egg fossils to those encoded in the genomes of living avian species...

“Eggshells are made of mineral crystals that can tightly trap some proteins, preserving this biological data in the harshest of environments – potentially for millions of years.”

According to findings published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the ancient eggs came from Genyornis: a huge flightless “mihirung” – or ‘Thunder Bird’ – with tiny wings and massive legs that roamed prehistoric Australia, possibly in flocks.

Fossil records show that Genyornis stood over two metres tall, weighed between 220-240 kilograms, and laid melon-sized eggs of around 1.5 kg. It was among the Australian “mega-fauna” to vanish a few thousand years after humans arrived, suggesting people played a role in its extinction.

The earliest “robust” date for the arrival of humans to Australia is some 65,000 years ago. Burnt eggshells from the previously unconfirmed species all date to around 50 to 55 thousand years ago – not long before Genyornis is thought to have gone extinct – by which time humans had spread across most of the continent.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientnavigation; australia; dietandcuisine; evospeculation; fauxiantroll; fauxiantrolls; genyornis; godsgravesglyphs; junkscience; missingtransitions; oldearthspeculation; spontaneouslifers; storkzilla; tasteslikechicken; youngearthdelusion; youngearthdelusions
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To: SunkenCiv

Some salt and pepper and green onions were also discovered with the eggs....


21 posted on 06/01/2022 9:35:30 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: SunkenCiv

...drank the beer first, then cooked the egg in the Fosters tin. A very resourceful people.


22 posted on 06/02/2022 6:25:13 AM PDT by nicollo
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To: SunkenCiv
Or rather, since this is Australia we’re talking about, where’s the giant bottle of beer?

How to Speak Australian.

Omelet


23 posted on 06/02/2022 7:19:31 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (We should worry less about who we might offend and care more about who we might inspire.)
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