Fossil reveals giant bird
Dr Darren Naish, of the University of Portsmouth, said that the bird was estimated to have been between two and three metres tall, and lived around 85 million years ago in Kazakhstan.
It has been discovered from the fossil of a single jawbone which has been found in a Brussels museum.
Named Samrukia nessovi, it represents one of the largest birds known from the Cretaceous period, a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The fossil is only the second giant, land-living bird species to be discovered in Cretaceous-aged rocks and is the first found in Asia.
Previously, the Gargantuavis philoinos, was found in France, was named in 1998 but experts have argued over its identification.
A paper published yesterday in Biology Letters suggests that the new Kazakh specimen confirms the presence of giant birds in the Cretaceous period.
Dr Naish said: “Since the 1850s we’ve known that numerous bird species lived during the age of the dinosaurs (the Mesozoic Era), but virtually all were crow-sized or smaller.
“We can now be really confident that Mesozoic terrestrial birds weren’t all thrush-sized or crow-sized animals... and giant forms were living in at least two distinct regions.”
If the newly-discovered bird flew, its wingspan was likely to have exceeded four metres, but Dr Naish said there was no way of knowing if it took to the skies or was flightless like an ostrich.
He added: “People tend to forget that birds co-existed with their dinosaurian relatives but it now seems that the Cretaceous was not a ‘dinosaurs-only theme park’.
“This find confirms that large birds were living alongside dinosaurs and may have been more widespread than previously thought.”
Dr Dave Martill, from the university’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: “This significant discovery demonstrates how young scientists can make an impact on our knowledge and emphasises how much field work remains to be done and how many exciting discoveries are left to unearth.”
