How ancient giant birds hunt

An international study showed that the Andalgalornis, a giant bird of prey in ancient times, killed its prey by using a large skull and a beak like a small ax.

A fossil skull of the Andalgalornis bird, placed next to a skull of
eagles today and a human skull for comparison.

This terrifying giant bird stood still up to 1.52m tall and dominated South America about 6 million years ago. When they attack, they attack the prey very accurately before retreating and then attack again.

Lawrence Witmer, of Ohio University, said: 'This bird is not a skilled predator, they cannot catch prey so they stand and jump around their prey to perform fatal operations.' .

The bird has a hard skull and a beak with hollow cavities inside, which means they must use an appropriate 'attack and retreat strategy . to try to kill and then devour the prey, otherwise They can use their very strong mines and neck muscles to tear their prey into small pieces'. Witmer added.

Paleontologists used a three-dimensional X-ray scanner to analyze the structure of this giant bird's skull and found it completely different from the skull structure of modern birds.

'Birds today have skulls with flexibility between joints, which allows them to have a light but strong skull . '

'But we found that Andalgalomis turned the mobility of the joints into a hard horny block and made them have a particularly strong skull, especially on the nose, although there was a hole in it . ' Witmer said.

The bird belongs to the Phorusrhacidae family, which is thought to be extinct about 2.5 million years ago.