The giant eagle of Middle Earth

Innovations-Report ^ | January 4, 2005

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Peter Jackson´s JRR Tolkien-inspired film trilogy Lord of the Rings features enormous eagles swooping down to rescue Sam and Frodo from a desolate New Zealand landscape masquerading as Mordor. The image of giant eagles flying around New Zealand, while fanciful, is not so far-fetched as it might appear. New genetic data published in the freely-available online journal PLoS Biology this week from researchers at Oxford and Canterbury Universities shed new light on the evolution of the extinct giant eagle that once ruled the skies in New Zealand.

Before human settlement 700 years ago, New Zealand had no terrestrial mammals, apart from three species of bats. Instead, about 250 species of bird dominated the terrestrial ecosystem. At the top of the food chain was the extinct Haast´s eagle. With a 2.5-3m wingspan weighing in at between 10 and 14 kg, Haast´s eagle was about 30-40% heavier than the largest living bird of prey (the harpy eagle of Central and South America) and was approaching the upper weight limit of powered flight. Haast´s eagle is the only eagle known to have been the top predator in a major terrestrial ecosystem, hunting moa, the giant herbivorous birds of New Zealand, weighing up to 200 kg. Evidence of eagle strikes remain, as holes and rents torn into the bones of moa, which show that the eagle struck from the side, gripped the moa´s pelvic area with one foot, and killed with a single strike by the other foot to the neck or head. The eagle is thought to be the Hokioi of Maori oral history and is recorded in rock art, and artifacts shaped from eagle bone prove that the eagle co-existed with early Polynesians. However, there is no evidence that humans were targets for this huge aerial predator.

In the research paper, New Zealand researchers at Oxford University´s Ancient Biomolecules Center run by Professor Alan Cooper extracted DNA from fossil eagle bones about 2000 years old. Dr Michael Bunce, who performed the research, said, "When I began the research project with graduate student Marta Szulkin, it was to prove the relationship of the extinct Haast´s eagle with the large Australian wedge-tailed eagle. The DNA results were so radical that at first we questioned their authenticity." The research team demonstrated that the New Zealand giant was in fact related to one of the world´s smallest eagles--the "Little Eagle" from Australia and New Guinea, which typically weighs under 1 kg. "Even more striking was how closely genetically related the two eagle species were. We estimate that their common ancestor lived less than a million years ago. It means an eagle arrived in New Zealand and increased in weight by 10-15 times over this period; such rapid size change is unprecedented in terrestrial vertebrates," Bunce said.

New Zealand-based palaeobiologist Dr Richard Holdaway, who was part of the research team and who has studied the eagle for the past 20 years, speculated as to how and why Haast´s eagle grew to be so big, so quick: "The size of available prey and the absence of predators are, we think, the key factors driving the size increase. The large herbivores were available, and after killing a moa, an eagle would have been able to feed unhindered." Holdaway goes on to say that "it´s great to see New Zealand´s extinct birds the focus of international research. There are so many unanswered questions about our biological past that ancient DNA can address, and the integration of molecular and morphological information can only benefit ecological and evolutionary research." Research into DNA from ancient moa "poop" and from soil in former petrel breeding colonies is currently underway.

More information: www.plos.org
www.plosbiology.org

[SuziQ]

From the website, Phoenixarises.com
"The Thunderbird is one of the few cross-cultural elements of Native North American mythology. He is found not just among Plains Indians, but also among Pacific Northwest and Northeastern tribes. He has also become quite a bit of an icon for non-Indians, since he has also had the honor of having automobiles, liquors, and even a United States Air Force squadron named after him."

[blam]

Thanks.

"Origins of the Thunderbird"

"Myth Cryptozoologists like Mark A. Hall, having studied the Thunderbird myths
of numerous tribes, and compared them to (mostly folkloric) accounts of unusually large
birds in modern times, as well as large birds (like the Roc) in other mythic traditions, suggest
that there may well be a surviving species of large avians in America - big enough, apparently,
to fly off carrying small animals or children, as has been claimed in some accounts. (Hall suggests the wingspan of such a species would be several feet longer than any
known birds - certainly bigger than that of the turkey vulture or other identifiable
North American species.) (Hall 1988) Such researchers feel the Thunderbird myth may have
originated from sightings of a real-life flesh-and-blood avian which might be an atavism
from earlier epochs (a quasi-pterodactyl or teratorn, perhaps.)"

[F.J. Mitchell]

Each report brings us more fiction and less science.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. The Thunderbird may have been some extinct variety of NA condor, or may have been something else entirely. "Strange" magazine used a bunch of ink trying to locate the mysterious lost photo of a purported thunderbird that had been shot, and that wasn't even the bird itself (if such exists). The "thunder" part of the name came from the cry of the bird, which was loud, distinctive, and frightening.

The Giant Panda is often classified as a bear or relative of bears, while the Lesser or Red Panda is generally held to be a relative of the raccoon. :')

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Petronski]

[ForGod'sSake]

Feh! THIS is a giant eagle:

[Drammach]

[Drammach]

Argentavis magnificens

From the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum display based on parts of a skeleton of the biggest known bird that ever flew.
Looming over the entrance hall, a black silhouette of Argentavis magnificens spans its wings over 8 m (about 25 ft.) and stands 3.5 m from tip of tail to end of beak.
This is almost twice the size of Teratornis merriami which, until now, had been considered the largest size to which flying avians could evolve.

[ForGod'sSake]

From the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum display based on parts of a skeleton of the biggest known bird that ever flew.

;^)

FGS

[SunkenCiv]

Also... according to one article (probably seen in "Strange") the Tex-Mex border area has stories of sinister, huge, winged creatures (sometimes without feathers, IOW, echoing the pterodon critters from the dinosauria), which eat carrion as well as live prey, swooping down to pull the dead out of the coffins during graveside services. :')

[Restorer]

The large herbivores were available, and after killing a moa, an eagle would have been able to feed unhindered.

So how did the "less than 1 kg" Little Eagle kill the moas to begin with?

[SunkenCiv]

Huge eagles 'dominated NZ skies'
by Alex Kirby
Tuesday, 4 January, 2005

it was driven to oblivion about five centuries ago, just 200 years or so after the first humans arrived... The researchers, led by Professor Alan Cooper from Oxford's Ancient Biomolecules Centre, extracted DNA from fossil eagle bones dating back about 2,000 years... What they showed was that the New Zealand bird was in fact related to one of the world's smallest eagles - the little eagle from Australia and New Guinea, which typically weighs less than 1kg (two pounds). Yet the Haast's eagle weighed between 10kg (1st 8lb) and 14kg (2st 3lb) - between 30% and 40% heavier than the largest living bird of prey alive today, the harpy eagle of Latin America, and was approaching the upper weight limit for powered flight... Nerc says: "Haast's eagle is the only eagle known to have been the top predator in a major terrestrial ecosystem. "They hunted moa, the herbivorous, flightless birds of New Zealand [now also extinct], which weighed up to 200kg (31st 7lb)... Forest fires destroyed its habitat and humans exterminated its food supply. There is also some evidence to suggest the eagles were hunted.

[SunkenCiv]

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution. Topic from 2005.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

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The eagles struck from the side (Image courtesy of John Megahan)

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