Bullockornis

Statues of Bullockornis at Kings Park in Perth.

• Australia ( Northern Territory )

Bullockornis is a living in the Miocene genus of flightless birds Thunder ( Dromornithidae ), which occurred in Australia and became extinct 11 million years ago. The only way is Bullockornis Planei.

Features

After Stirton - thunderbird ( Dromornis stirtoni ) Bullockornis was the second largest species of the group, two to possibly 2.8 meters was high and could reach a weight of probably 300 kg. Graphical and reproduced by other bone parts thunderbird added Skelettrekonstuktionen in museums give an impression of the appearance of the birds, but are speculative due to the incomplete fossil record part.

In contrast to the other thunder birds have grown together to form a single bone in Bullockornis and Dromornis the first ( atlas) and the second cervical vertebra (axis ).

According to recent, described in 1998 fossils Bullockornis possessed an exceptionally powerful, equipped with a strong muscle head and a beak, big enough to hide a football. The bill was very large as in the Paleogene, living in Europe and North America Gastornis, high arched and compared to the rest of the skull. The eyes were small. Head and beak together reached a length of half a meter. The Australian palaeontologist Stephen Wroe presumed, therefore, that Bullockornis, in contrast to its herbivorous relatives, a meat or scavengers could have been.