The terror bird — an extinct group of carnivorous birds that once dominated the current territory of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay after the extinction of dinosaurs — persisted between 23 million years ago and up to about 17 thousand years ago.
With the head of an eagle, curved beak, body and legs of an African ostrich, and claws as big as those of the Jurassic Park raptors, “you wouldn't want to be in a cage with one of them,” remarked Washington Jones, a paleo-ornithologist at the National Museum of Natural History of Uruguay (MNHN). This beast could also weigh 220 pounds and effortlessly tear flesh.
A recent study published in Electronic Paleontology suggests that the terror bird was also at the top of the food chain in Antarctica, much earlier than previously thought at around 50 million years ago.
Antarctica Once was Lush with Life
During the Eocene, Antarctica was neither cold, nor inhospitable, but a land of lush forests and a warm environment that remained connected (or very little separated) from the southern tip of South America, allowing terrestrial mammals to transit without major restrictions.
