Fossil Of Four Foot Feathered Dinosaur

The fossil of a flightless “terror” four-foot bird with a hooked beak was unearthed.

12:25 13 April 2015

An exceptionally preserved fossil, with more than 90per cent of the skeleton, provides a clear picture of a flightless “terror” four-foot bird with a hooked beak that lived in South America during the Cenozoic period from the end of the Cretaceous Period and the extinction of non-avarian dinosaurs. 

 

The new specimen revealed details of the anatomy including the auditory region of the skull, voice box, complete trachea, bones, and the complete palate. 

 

Dr Federico “Dino” Degrange of the Universidad Nacional de C rdoba, Argentina said: “The mean hearing estimated for this terror bird was below the average for living birds.

 

“This seems to indicate that Llallawavis may have had a narrow, low vocalisation frequency range, presumably used for intraspecific acoustic communication or prey detection.”

 

 “The discovery of this species reveals that terror birds were more diverse in the Pliocene than previously thought.

 

“It will allow us to review the hypothesis about the decline and extinction of this fascinating group of birds.”

 

Dr Claudia Tambussi added: “The discovery of this new species provides new insights for studying the anatomy and phylogeny of phorusrhacids and a better understanding of this group’s diversification.