An enormous birdie terrorise the shrubs of northern Canada around 53 million years ago . research worker say dodo grounds of the flightless birdGastorniswas found in the Canadian Arctic — much further north than anywhere the wight had been found before . The findings were latterly published in the journalScientific Reports .
We ’ve known aboutGastornisfor quite some time now , but previous fossils have all been discover further south , in Wyoming , Europe , and Asia . For many year , paleontologist believe the six - foundation - marvellous boo with ahorseback - sized headwas a carnivore . Morerecent researchsuggested thatGastornis’smonstrous beak was used for shoot leaves , crank , and fruit off of plants . That ’s right : this nightmare bird was a vegan .
paleontologist find a large , fossilized phalanx ( toe os ) on Canada ’s Ellesmere Island in the 1970s . The bone looked like it might have belong to toGastornis , so they recorded it as such , then put it away . The osseous tissue put down unexamined for decade until consolidative biologist Thomas Stidham and geologist Jaelyn Eberle took an interest .
“ We knew there were a few shuttle fossils from up there , but we also knew they were super rare,”Eberle saidin a press press release .
So did this toe really go toGastornis?Eberle and Stidham compared the Ellesmere Island os to those regain before in Wyoming . The bones were not only intimately identical , but very close in years .
The researchers also took a tight aspect at an Ellesmere Island humerus ( wing bone ) assumed to have belong to the gangling , extinct bird , Presbyornis . That , too , was a match withPresbyornisbones discover elsewhere . “ I could n’t distinguish the Wyoming specimens from the Ellesmere specimen , even though it was found about 4000 kilometers ( 2500 mile ) to the due north , ” Stidham say in the wardrobe release .
As always , it is worth noting that these conclusions were take in from a single pearl of a single beast , and therefore amount to highly educated guesses about what these wench looked like , how they behaved , and what they wipe out .
Stidham and Eberle say their findings have implications for clime change . Although Ellesmere Island today is frozen unanimous , it was likely much warmer during the Eocene Epoch , making it more hospitable for prehistoric reptiles , primates , and skirt likeGastornisandPresbyornis . They say that whileGastornismay have lived at Ellesmere throughout the winter , they ’re not sure whetherPresbyronismigrated there or took up residence year - orotund .
The Earth is warm again . “ Permanent Arctic ice , which has been around for millennia , is on track to disappear , ” Eberle said . “ I ’m not suggesting there will be a return of alligators and giant tortoise to Ellesmere Island any time soon . But what we know about past warm intervals in the Arctic can give us a much better idea about what to gestate in terms of vary plant and animal populations there in the future tense . ”
