Phorusrhacidae: Terror Birds Research Paper

Phorusrahicidae is the scientific name, this creature is known as the terror birds. They were class birds, and the phylum was chordate. They also were the biggest birds during the Cenozoic era. This creature was from 3ft 10 into 10ft 10in tall. In addition, they have been extinct from 62 – 1.8 million years ago. The closes sibling in these days are seriemas, however, the tallest they get to be is 80 centimeters. Terror birds were flightless and carnivores. They also came from South America, but they migrated to North America when the volcanic Isthmus of Panama appear, and the continents were separate.

In the Cenozoic era there were different types of terror birds one of the biggest one was the keleken species. In Prehistoric Fauna article explain, that they were from seven ft to 10 ft tall, and their weight was 500 pounds. Another specie was Titanis, Strauss wrote that their habitat was in North America. This creature lives from five to two million years ago. These creatures were eight feet tall and weight 300 pounds. Moreover, gastornis was also a Phorusrahicidae and it was six feet tall and weighed a few hundred pounds. The habitat was in north America from the woodland of Western Europe and Eastern Asia. This is the only terror bird that Scientifics are not sure if it was a carnivore or an herbivore but in studies it looks more that this specie was herbivores in that time. There are more types of terror birds and they were all giant and fast birds compare to that one we have in days from the evolution. As a result, there were many giant terror birds more than that ones I mention, and in this day, they are all extinct and the only thing that it stays from them was some fossils.

According to bhanoo terror birds came to this world after the dinosaur were extinct in the Cenozoic era. Terror bird had vertebrate structure and the height was from 3 ft to 10 ft. These birds were ferocity compare to a cheetah. Paleontologist believed that terror birds could have been 100 km per hour. They believed that this bird could swallow a complete animal. The unknowing author in Terror Birds said, “It also had an immense, hooked bill, and with such an impressive beak, it could have probably swallowed a lamb-sized animal in one gulp” (Nov. 2019). This bird was big and scary. In addition, due to the terror bird fossils that they found in South America paleontologists were able to figure out that terror birds communicate with low frequency sounds with others. Consequently, the reasons of the extinction of these birds is unclear since paleontologist explain that when there is this type of animal is more probability of survival. Federico Javier Degrange in bhanoo article said, “the fossils add to why they went extinct two and a half million years ago”. However, Grubyi explains that before they believed that the reason of extinction was because the climate changes. Then scientific came with the idea that the main reason of birds getting extinct it was the fall of mammals eating the eggs until they got extinct.

This creature was cool to have seen. When I did my research, I did not have any idea that these creatures existed before us or that they even exist. I believe terror birds were in the existent of dinosaurs, but they came after the dinosaurs were extinct. These birds have been extinct, but this is not bad since they were about 10ft tall and were carnivores. In addition, with evolution pathologist believe seriemas are the small version of terror birds, however, seriemas are harmless since they are herbivores. One of the things that still a mystery is how terror birds really got extinct but they are still looking for answers.

Work Cited

1. (2012). Kelen Guillermo. Prehistoric Fauna Roman Unchytel. Retrieved from https://prehistoric-fauna.com/Kelenken-guillermoi.
2. (2019, October 2). Terror Birds. Fossils Hunters >>Disappeared species. Retrieved from https://www.fossilhunters.xyz/disappeared-species/terror-bird.html.
3. (2019, Nov. 18). Phorusrhacidae. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae.
4. Bhanoo, S. N. (2015, April 13). Anatomy of a terror bird. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/science/anatomy-of-a-terror-bird.html.
5. Strauss, B. (2019, Oct. 23). Titanis facts and figures. Thought Co. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/overview-of-titanis-1093601.
6. Grubyi, L. (2017, January 21). Scientists have revealed the cause of the ‘terror birds’ extinction. Blasting News. Retrieved from https://uk.blastingnews.com/science/2017/01/scientists-have-revealed-the-cause-of-the-terror-birds-extinction-001411961.html.