Dromornis stirtoni
Dromornis stirtoni
The Stirton Thunder bird (English: Stirton 's Thunder Bird) ( Dromornis stirtoni ) belongs to the group Dromornithiformes, consistent with the organization of geese birds ( Anseriformes ) is used - not, as their appearance suggests, the ratites. The species belonged to the megafauna in Australia and lived 8-6 million years ago. Fossil remains of birds are known mainly from the Alcoota Fossil Beds in Central Australia.
Features
Dromornis stirtoni was with a height 2.7 to 2.8 meters and an estimated weight of up to 570 kg, the heaviest known bird of the Earth's history. Comparable values are attributed Brontornis burmeisteri, although it was about the same, but only reached an estimated weight of 350 to 400 kg. A native of Madagascar Aepyornis maximus to write to an achievable weight of 450 kg at approximately the same plant height. Finally, the New Zealand genus Dinornis is comparable, whose females raised at least 3.6 meters crown height, should have, however, reached a maximum of 250 kg mass.
His head reached a length of 48 to 52 inches and was about 25 % larger than that of the second largest thunderbird Bullockornis. The beak was living as in the Paleogene, in Europe and North America Gastornis, high arched and very large compared to the rest of the skull, but not so high and concave as in Bullockornis.
In contrast to the other thunder birds have grown together to form a single bone in Dromornis and Bullockornis the first ( atlas) and the second cervical vertebra (axis ). A lower cervical spine was 16.5 cm wide and 12 cm long. The sternum was wider than long.
The Stirton Thunder bird may have become fed carnivore. Its habitat was the open subtropical woodlands in northern Australia.