Bennu Heron

Representation of the dead bird Benu

Ardea bennuides is an extinct heron by the United Arab Emirates. The species name refers to the ancient Egyptian bennuides Totengott Benu.

Features

Ardea bennuides is known only from a Tibiotarsusfragment, which was found in the archaeological site of Umm an-Nar in the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf and formally described in 1977 by the Danish geologist Ella high. The stratigraphic age of the fragment is dated to the time of 3050 BC (5000 yBP ). Highs description consists of only a brief summary and gives no information about the size of the bone and the exact location. Nevertheless, this description does not apply nudum as a noun, as a photo of the bone has been published. Ardea bennuides was larger than the Goliath Heron ( Ardea goliath ), the largest extant heron.

High suspected that Ardea bennuides served as inspiration for the Benu, a dead bird, which is represented on numerous hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt.