Giant bird that stood 11.5 foot tall and weighed the same as a polar bear lived alongside people in Europe two million years ago, study suggests
- Researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences are behind the latest find
- They say the bird weighed 70 stone and may have been hunted by early humans
- Such birds were only thought to exist on Madagascar, New Zealand and Australia
- The bird was probably 11.5ft tall and would have towered above early humans
A bird three times bigger than an ostrich and the same weight as a fully grown polar bear once lived in Europe, according to a new study.
A chance discovery in a cave in Crimea suggests that early Europeans around 1.5 million years ago lived alongside some of the largest birds ever to live on Earth.
Experts previously believed that such gigantic birds only ever existed on the islands of Madagascar and New Zealand as well as in Australia.
The newly-discovered specimen, found in Taurida Cave on the northern coast of the Black Sea, suggests a bird as big as the Madagascan elephant bird or New Zealand moa once lived in Europe.
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A bird three times bigger than an ostrich and the same weight as a fully grown polar bear once lived in Europe, according to a new study
Researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences say it weighed about 70 stone (450kg) and believe it may have been a source of meat, bones, feathers and eggshell for early humans.
Lead author Dr Nikita Zelenkov said: ‘When I first felt the weight of the bird whose thigh bone I was holding in my hand, I thought it must be a Malagasy elephant bird fossil because no birds of this size have ever been reported from Europe.
‘However, the structure of the bone unexpectedly told a different story.
‘We don’t have enough data yet to say whether it was most closely related to ostriches or to other birds, but we estimate it weighed about 450 kilos.
‘This formidable weight is nearly double the largest moa, three times the largest living bird, the common ostrich, and nearly as much as an adult polar bear.’
It is the first time a bird of such size has been reported anywhere in the northern hemisphere.
Although the species was previously known, no one ever tried to calculate the size of the animal.
The flightless bird, attributed to the species Pachystruthio dmanisensis, was probably at least 11.5 feet (3.5m), and would have towered above early humans.
It may have been flightless, but the researchers said it was also fast.
A chance discovery in a cave in Crimea suggests that early Europeans around 1.5 million years ago lived alongside some of the largest birds ever to live on Earth. Pictured: Aritist’s impression of the bird
While elephant birds were hampered by their great size when it came to speed, Dr Zelenkov said the femur of the bird found in Crimea was relatively long and slim, suggesting it was a better runner.
The femur is comparable to modern ostriches as well as smaller species of moa and terror birds.
But speed may have been essential to the bird’s survival.
Alongside its bones, palaeontologists found fossils of highly-specialised, massive carnivores from the Ice Age.
They included giant cheetah, giant hyenas and sabre-toothed cats, which were able to prey on mammoths.
Other fossils discovered alongside the specimen, such as bison, help date it to 1.5 to 2 million years ago.
A similar range of fossils was discovered at an archaeological site in the town of Dmanisi in Georgia, the oldest hominin site outside Africa.
WHEN DID HUMAN ANCESTORS FIRST EMERGE?
The timeline of human evolution can be traced back millions of years. Experts estimate that the family tree goes as such:
55 million years ago – First primitive primates evolve
15 million years ago – Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon
7 million years ago – First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge
A recreation of a Neanderthal man is pictured
5.5 million years ago – Ardipithecus, early ‘proto-human’ shares traits with chimps and gorillas
4 million years ago – Ape like early humans, the Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee’s but other more human like features
3.9-2.9 million years ago – Australoipithecus afarensis lived in Africa.
2.7 million years ago – Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing
2.6 million years ago – Hand axes become the first major technological innovation
2.3 million years ago – Homo habilis first thought to have appeared in Africa
1.85 million years ago – First ‘modern’ hand emerges
1.8 million years ago – Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record
800,000 years ago – Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases rapidly
400,000 years ago – Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia
300,000 to 200,000 years ago – Homo sapiens – modern humans – appear in Africa
50,000 to 40,000 years ago – Modern humans reach Europe
Although previously neglected by science, this suggests the giant bird may have been typical of the animals found at the time when the first hominins arrived in Europe.
The researchers suggest it reached the Black Sea region via the Southern Caucasus and Turkey.
They said animals with a larger body mass have lower metabolic demands and can therefore make use of less nutritious food growing in open steppes.
Dr Zelenkov added: ‘The Taurida cave network was only discovered last summer when a new motorway was being built.
‘Last year, mammoth remains were unearthed and there may be much more to that the site will teach us about Europe’s distant past.’
The full findings of the study were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
