The face of a giant flightless bird has been reconstructed tens of thousands of years after it was last seen by humans.
Living more than 45,000 years ago, Genyornis newtoni would have been one of the many large animals, or megafauna, living in ancient Australia. Standing over two metres tall and weighing up to 240 kilogrammes, it would have been an imposing presence for the first humans to reach the continent.
Shortly after humans arrived, however, Genyornis went extinct. The birds are thought to have been eaten into extinction, with climate change hastening their demise. Their extinction was so rapid that only one poorly preserved skull was thought to have survived, leaving much to learn about this enormous bird.
Now, 128 years after Genyornis was first found, scientists have been able to put a face to the name. Phoebe McInerney, a PhD student who led the study, says that new skull fossils have revealed the species is not the bird they had expected.
“The exact relationship of Genyornis with waterfowl has been complicated to unravel,” Phoebe says. “We have started to piece together the puzzle with this new skull which shows, simply put, that this species is a giant goose.”
“While its upper jaw is tall and mobile, like that of a parrot, it’s shaped like a goose. With a wide gape and strong bite force, Genyornis would have had the ability to crush soft plants and fruit on the roof of their mouth.”
The paper was published in the journal Historical Biology.