The new varieties of “terror bird” phorusrhacids identified as Llallawavis scagliai was located in Argentina and lived during the tumultuous times of the Pliocene era. Its rather complete skeleton shows that it was a “terror bird”, a meat-eating, flightless bird which could grow up 10 ft in height and had a limited vocal range with a low frequency.
Some of the flightless phorusrhacids that are known as fear birds, have represented one of the main predators discovered in the South America regions, prior of becoming extinct for various reasons more than 2 million years ago. The specialists who are studying them have now found one of the most complete skeletons of this historical bird species to date.
Paleontologists have discovered an essentially complete set of bones of this new species of phorusrhacids named as Llallawavis scagliai and it allowed them to research the creature’s complex biological structure in unmatched details, as perfectly as gain many more information about the bird known for a massive beak and preference for various types of meat.
The finding, which was revealed in the latest edition of the publication Vertebrate Paleontology, has a lot more than 75 % of its bones perfectly preserved, exposing the outstanding abilities of this aggressive bird and tagging the first time when biological components of the animal, including hearing organs have been rebuilt for this creature of terror. The specific discover may perhaps aid to offer description regarding the actions, progress and environment of this particular type of vanished species.
Paleontologists mentioned this new species, which lived in South America about 3 million years ago, in the Pliocene era, was 4 ft. high and had a scary overall look. In contrast to the birds that usually are living these days, this species of birds likely had a hearing capacity that, in all possibility, was under developed for its nervous system and the other vital parts.
Scientists say that these flightless birds, whose name indicates Scaglia’s Spectacular Bird, a tribute to one of the most famous naturalists from Argentina, Galileo Juan Scaglia, had a restricted variety of vocal sounds with low regularity. They bring the theory that this species of birds might as well have used low-frequency sounds in order to pinpoint its prey with rather good accuracy on that difficult terrain.
The poorly developed hearing approximated for this terror bird was under the common levels studied in today’s species of birds, as the scientists in Argentina have found out while examining the head’s bones from the well-preserved skeleton. This goes to indicate that Llallawavis might have possibly developed a filter in the low-vocalization range of frequency, probably used for intraspecific sound interaction or prey recognition.
Researchers rebuilt the framework of the inner ear of the creature with the help of modern 3D calculated X-ray tomography and discovered that the Llallawavis could have detected sounds in a wide range of about 3,800 Hz and with a sensitivity of approximately 2,300 Hz. Our human ear can identify sounds with wavelengths that can vary between 20 Hz and almost 20,000 Hz, indicating that the aggressive birds have been very good at listening the lower-frequency sounds in comparison with people.
The paleontologists who have studied the skeleton also mentioned that the finding of this species if very ancient birds revealed that such creatures of terror had been a lot more different during the long period of the Pliocene era than it was previously considered by the specialist all around the world. It also allowed scientists to assess the speculation concerning the decrease in number and eventually, the extinction of this amazing species of birds who have dominated the regions in South America for millions of years.
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