Time and Place: Around 125 million years ago, at the boundary between the Barremian and Aptian ages of the Early Cretaceous
Europatitan is known only from the Castrillo de la Reina Formation in Spain.
Physical Description: Europatitan would have looked a lot like other basal titanosauriformes such as Brachiosaurus. The neck vertebrae of Europatitan are especially elongate and would have been heavily pneumatized by air sacs. Although not all of the neck is known, these indicate it would have been extremely long, similar to Giraffatitan or Sauroposeidon. The body of Europatitan would have been quite wide, as its ribs indicate, and its tail fairly short. The only limb elements of Europatitan known are a couple metacarpals, but even these are enough to show it had robust forelimbs. The head of Europatitan is unknown except for a tooth, but it would have likely been similar to that of Giraffatitan.
By Scott Reid
Diet: As a sauropod, Europatitan would have been herbivorous. Its teeth were spoon-shaped, unlike the pencil-shaped teeth of diplodocoids and titanosaurs, indicating it probably had a different diet than them (which would have been useful to avoid competition with the contemporary Demandasaurus). Based on neck size, their target diet would have likely been at the tallest parts of trees.
Behavior: Europatitan would have spent much of its time eating leaves at the top of the forest tree-line as far as its neck could reach, and then moving to the next available spot for foliage. Like many sauropods, Europatitan likely spent time with others of its genera in order to reduce predation on the more vulnerable members of the group (such as sick, older, or younger individuals). While we don’t have any direct evidence for whether or not Europatitan actively cared for its young or not, the basal behavior shared among all extant archosaurs (crocodiles and birds) is some degree of parental care.
By José Carlos Cortés
Ecosystem: Europatitan’s fossils were found in the Castrillo de la Reina Formation, which in the Cretaceous would have been a floodplain, with a river flowing in from the southwest. The Castrillo de la Reina environment was also home to the rebbachisaurid Demandasaurus, the earliest rhabdodont, other indeterminate ornithopods, theropods, and the lizard Arcanosaurus. We don’t know how many of these directly lived alongside Europatitan, though,as the specific site that Europatitan was found at has only yielded theropod teeth and fragments of an iguanodont.
By Ripley Cook
Other: Fun fact: the type species of Europatitan, E. eastwoodi, is named for actor Clint Eastwood. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which he starred in, was filmed near where they found the fossil.
Time and Place: Within the last 10,000 years, in the Holocene of the Quaternary
Maleos are known entirely from the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia
Physical Description: Maleos are large landfowl, reaching 55 centimeters in length. These are large, round birds with skinny necks and odd looking heads – they have black crests on the tops of their heads that flop over the back, and little red bands at the top of their beaks. The beaks of Maleos are thick and grey, and they have primarily brown heads. Their backs are black, as are their wings and tails, but their bellies are white; and they have long, grey legs. In addition to all of this, Maleos have orange rings around their eyes that are extremely noticeable. The young tend to have black heads in addition to these features.
Diet: Maleos feed on a variety of fruits, seeds, insects, and other invertebrates.
By Stavenn, CC BY-SA 3.0
Behavior: Maleos are Megapodes, which means they are one of the only groups of dinosaurs that don’t take care of their young! Instead, Megapodes make giant mound-nests which use geothermal energy and solar-heat in order to incubate the eggs. Maleos are monogamous, mating with only one individual per season (and potentially per life, but they aren’t very well studied), and the pair builds the nest mound together, lays the eggs, and leaves. Around ten eggs are laid per year, though some may lay as many as thirty. The eggs incubate for nearly three months; when the young hatch, they rapidly lose a lot of weight, before beginning to chow down on as much food as possible and growing rapidly for the next two months. They reach sexual maturity themselves at around two years of age. They can live for up to 23 years.
By BronxZooFan, CC BY-SA 4.0
These are noisy birds, making a wide variety of calls including brays, rolls, and quacking – to the point of sounding rather surreal in some situations. They tend to spend most of their time foraging with their mate, walking around and gathering the food off of the ground. They do not migrate, but they also do move around the island each year, not sticking in one place or placing their nests in the same sites from year to year.
Ecosystem: These megapodes live primarily in lowland and hill jungle, going to the beaches for their breeding or in forest clearings with extensive amounts of sand. They usually roost in trees high off of the ground. Maleos are preyed upon by humans, pigs, monitor lizards, and crocodilians.
By Ariefrahman, CC BY-SA 4.0
Other: Maleos are endangered, with only potentially 14,000 individuals left with a rapidly declining population. The reasons for this seem to be due to human exploitation, egg hunting by humans and introduced mammalian predators, and extensive habitat loss. This is also illegal, as much of that lost habitat is protected – as are the eggs of this species, which are being collected in the thousands. Since they are a delicacy, and not a food source staple, this practice must be condemned and hopefully further regulation can help to increase Maleo populations.
TIme and Place: Since 10,000 years ago, in the Holocene of the Quaternary
Snow Mountain Quail live entirely in the Snow Mountains of Irian Jaya in New Guinea
Physical Description: Snow Mountain Quail are adorable little round birds, ranging in size from 25 to 28 centimeters in length. They have small heads and tiny, pointed beaks, with large round bodies. They do not have large tails – as you would assume from their names – but instead have a small tuft of feathers in the shape of a triangle on the ends of their bodies. They also have short, stubby feet. The males are reddish, with brown backs and brown striping on their bodies. The females are more pale, but also with brown backs and brown striping.
Diet: These quail feed mainly on flowers, leaves, seeds, foliage, and sometimes caterpillars.
By Charles Davies, in the Public Domain
Behavior: Snow Mountain Quail aren’t the most social pheasant species, usually only foraging in small groups of 2 to 3 individuals. They make small, noisy squeals when flustered, and repeated squee-ing calls when alarmed. They do not migrate, though they do move back and forth along the elevation due to predator activity. They make nests on the edge of grass tussocks, usually in September; where they lay three pale brown eggs with dark brown spots.
Ecosystem: Snow Mountain Quail are known from grassland and scrubland in the mountains, between 3100 and 3800 meter elevations. This is an extremely remote – and chilly – environment.
By Romain Risso, CC BY-SA 3.0
Other: Snow Mountain Quail are mainly near threatened due to the extremely limited and unique nature of its habitat. It is also not helped by the fact that the Indonesian Government has not granted protected status to these birds. More work is needed to protect these adorable little birds.
Time and Place: Between 19 and 16 million years ago, in the Burdigalian of the Miocene
Heracles is known from the Bannockburn Formation of the South Island of New Zealand
Physical Description: Heracles is an utterly fascinating recent dinosaur discovery, both for its inherent qualities and those due to the circumstances of its discovery. This was a large, Kākāpō-like parrot, about the height of a shorter adult or a child. It is the largest known parrot, and it would have been about one meter tall and weighing about seven kilograms. Given this size, it was flightless, and probably mostly terrestrial. It had a very strong beak, and probably resembled in many ways a giant version of the modern-day Kākāpō, Kaka, and Kea. As such, it would have been quite fat looking, probably greenish in color, and very fluffy as well.
By Brian Choo, Press Release Image
Diet: As a parrot, Heracles is most likely to have fed on seeds and nuts, though the fact that it was closely related to the living Kea means there is a non insignificant chance it was carnivorous. For now, we’ll say it was most likely an omnivore.
Behavior: It is logical to presume that Heracles resembled its modern relatives, which means it would have been a loosely social animal, spending most of its time on the ground in groups of about a dozen animals. It would have been able to use tools to get at sources of food, especially difficult to reach ones. It possibly would have also used its sharp beak to attack other dinosaurs on the island, chasing them with a hopping gait until they were isolated and then killed. An intelligent animal, it would have been able to solve puzzles and work together to get at sources of food or shelter. As a member of the New Zealand Parrot Group, it probably would have been polygamous, with the males having multiple mates at a time. They would have made nests on the ground, and since they never came across with mammalian predators, they probably would have been fine in terms of reproduction rate.
By Ripley Cook
Ecosystem: The Saint Bathans Fauna was a unique ecosystem filled with almost entirely birds, and other creatures that could float or fly over to New Zealand after it emerged from having flooded. This meant that birds were filling niches that, in the rest of the world, were being taken up by mammals. In short, this was a weird sort of Jurassic Park – with dinosaurs wreaking havoc as echoes of their former reign. Dinosaurs of the Saint Bathans Fauna included another New Zealand Parrot, Nelepsittacus, a bittern Pikaihao, herons like Matuku and Pikaihao, the swimming flamingo Palaelodus, flightless rails such as Priscaweka and Litorallus, the early Adzebill Aptornis proasciarostratus, the pigeon Rupephaps, the stiff-tailed duck Dunstanneta, the early Kiwi Proapteryx, the small Manuherikia duck, and the early New Zealand Wren Kuiornis – just to name a few! Given that only sparse remains are known from some unnamed birds of prey, this points to Heracles being at least somewhat carnivorous and fulfilling that role in its ecosystem. This was a series of extensive lakes, filled with cycad and palm trees, and there were also a wide variety of geckos, skinks, crocodilians, turtles, tuatara, and bats. There was one other mammal present – but, for now, we have no idea what it was.
By José Carlos Cortés
Other: The Saint Bathans Fauna is one of the most fascinating ecosystems of fossil birds of the Cenozoic Era. The unique ecosystem of New Zealand, with its almost complete lack of mammals before human interference. Heracles is an extremely important fossil find, as it may help us to piece together how the weird New Zealand Parrots evolved – previously, little was known in the way of fossil members of this group beyond recent history. The more we research it, the more we will be able to understand one small piece of the evolutionary puzzle that is this unique island. Also, it’s common name is Squawkzilla.
Referred Species: G. aesculapii, G. moldovicus, G. beremendensis, G. tamanensis, G. kudarensis, G. europaeus, G. imereticus, G. meschtscheriensis, G. georgicus, G. varius (Green Junglefowl), G. sonneratii (Grey Junglefowl), G. lafayettii (Sri Lankan Junglefowl), G. gallus (Red Junglefowl and Domesticated Chicken)
Status: Extinct – Extant, Least Concern
Time and Place: Since about 6 million years ago, in the Messinian of the Miocene through today
In the past, Junglefowl were found throughout Eurasia, especially across Europe. After the last glacial maximum, they were restricted to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Eurasia, as well as many Pacific islands. Of course, today, domestic chickens are found all over the world. This map below shows the current range of wild Junglefowl in dark blue, and extinct Junglefowl in light blue; please note that domesticated and feral chickens are found everywhere.
Physical Description: Junglefowl are highly ornamented, beautiful, bulky birds, with the males being decorated in brilliantly iridescent feathers all over their bodies. The females tend to be more dull in color, in order to blend in with the environment; that being said, they can also have beautiful and distinct patches of brighter feathers in certain strategic places, such as the tail. The males also have combs on the tops of their heads, made out of skin and muscle, rather than feathers; they also tend to have bare red faces, and wattles underneath their chins also made of skin and muscle. Their tails tend to have long, curved ribbon feathers, colored with iridescence and usually in a blueish-greenish shade. The tails of the females are shorter and less distinctive. These birds are squat, with short legs and bulky bodies. They also have small heads and short, pointed beaks. In general, junglefowl males can range between 65 and 80 centimeters long; the females tend to be significantly smaller, ranging between 35 and 46 centimeters long.
Sri Lankan Junglefowl by Schnobby, CC BY-SA 3.0
Diet: Junglefowl are omnivorous birds, feeding on a wide variety of food such as such as insects, worms, leaves, berries, seeds, fruit, bamboo, grasses, tubers, and even small reptiles.
Grey Junglefowl by Yathin S. Krishnappa, CC BY-SA 3.0
Behavior: Junglefowl tend to forage in small groups, but they will also scratch around the ground for food alone, using their feet to release food that might be trapped under the most shallow layer of ground or leaf litter. They peck, very distinctly, at the ground – bobbing their bodies back and forth as they move around, pecking in short spurts to gather the food they look for. They are very opportunistic feeders, switching back and forth between different food sources based on what is more available in a given season. They can even associate, happily, with other birds and even mammals of all things, using the environmental disturbance they cause in order to find food.
Green Junglefowl by Francesco Veronesi, CC BY-SA 2.0
Junglefowl make some of the most distinctive calls of any bird, though of course, each language seems to have its own onomatopoeia to describe it. They make very distinctive clucks, cackling, and even cooing sounds depending on the situation. Males do make “cock-a-doodle-do” calls, though they can vary in tone and loudness, as well as the syllables involved, from species to species. These calls are actually advertising calls, made by the males, in order to attract females! The females tend to be quieter than the males, though domesticated female chickens are not quiet animals by a longshot. Junglefowl do not migrate, and tend to stay limited within their preferred habitats (though, of course, domesticated chickens have been bred to deal with a wider variety of climate better than their wild relatives.)
Red Junglefowl by Harvinder Chandigarh, CC By-SA 4.0
Junglefowl can breed throughout the year (it’s why they were domesticated), though some populations tend to favor the dry season over the wet season (primarily due to less danger with the daily weather – these guys do hail from the monsoon lands!) As a general rule, junglefowl are polygamous – males will mate with a variety of females throughout the year, with the females doing the bulk of the work in nest construction and child care (which makes sense, since they blend in so well with the environment). Some species – such as the Grey Junglefowl – do show monogamous behavior from time to time, with males sticking with one female for long periods of time. In a classic case of sexual selection, females tend to prefer males with more brilliant combs (rather than focusing on plumage color, though this could be different in non-domesticated species). The female will lay between 2 and 6 eggs (some species laying more than others) in a depression amongst dense vegetation; the female will incubate the eggs for three weeks before the chicks hatch. The chicks are extremely fluffy and cute when hatching, usually covered in soft brown feathers (though domesticated ones are more yellowish). The chicks are able to fly after one week, and males will become sexually mature sometime between 5 and 8 months. They are not the strongest fliers, usually preferring short bursts of activity rather than sustained flight.
Domesticated Chicken Chicks by Uberprutser, CC BY-SA 3.0
Extremely social birds, chickens have a very noticeable pecking order – with individual chickens dominating over others in order to have priority for food and nesting location. This pecking order is disrupted when individuals are removed from a flock; adding new chickens also causes fighting and injury until a new pecking order is established. This family structure was exploited by early humans, in order to become the “top chicken” and domesticate the species. Interestingly enough, chickens do gang up on inexperienced predators – foxes have even been killed in such encounters! Despite stereotypes to the contrary, chickens are extremely intelligent animals – studies have shown they have higher intellectual capabilities than human toddlers – they are self aware, are able to count, and do trick one another into actions (aka, they can lie and manipulate other chickens). What’s more, despite their pecking order fights, they are very affectionate and empathetic birds – prone to cuddling with other flock members, and checking in to make sure the flock is alright. They show very rapid learning ability, and are able to grasp basic number theory only after a few weeks from hatching. In addition to being logical with numbers, they can reason out many other things – including forming teams to play kickball! Bird-brain, indeed!
Red and Green Junglefowl by Francesco Veronesi, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ecosystem: Junglefowl primarily live in dense, humid rainforest and wet woodland. They can also be found in savanna, scrub habitat, coastal scrub, mountain forest, and also in human plantations and farmland (as wild species spreading into human-created habitat). They do prefer lower elevations to higher ones, as a general rule. They are fed upon by a wide variety of creatures – larger birds, predatory mammals, and large lizards and crocodilians. Of course, the biggest predator of junglefowl is probably People! Just, statistically speaking.
Sri Lankan Junglefowl by Steve Garvie, CC BY-SA 2.0
Other: Junglefowl are, thankfully, not threatened with extinction. In fact, they are extremely common birds throughout their range. Domesticated chickens even regularly go feral (ie, return to wild living despite being descended from fully domesticated populations), spreading into places far from their original range such as Latin America, Hawai’i, and Africa. There are many extinct species of Junglefowl; they used to have a much wider range into Europe, but went extinct during the last Glacial Maximum, when things got too cold for them everywhere but Southeastern Asia. They then thrived in those jungle habitats, before being domesticated by people during the Holocene.
Domesticated Chicken by Berit, CC BY 2.0
Chickens were domesticated from the Red Junglefowl sometime around 5,000 years ago in Southeastern Asia. It was probably domesticated multiple times – with hybridization occurring afterwards. It spread throughout the world, reaching Greece by the fifth century BCE, though they were in Egypt potentially one thousand years earlier (or even more!!!). They were domesticated due to their frequent laying schedule – made more so by selective breeding, of course – and easily exploitable family structure. They were domesticated to breed even more frequently, leading to an abundance of adult animals – and the females even lay unfertilized eggs, giving us another source of delicious food. They also have been bred to come in many sizes, shapes, and brilliant colors of plumage. Because of their high empathetic capacity, chickens are amazingly good pets – plus, they’re domesticated, which gives them a leg up over parrots. Docile breeds, such as silkies, are great pets for children, including children with disabilities. Chickens are so fundamental to human society, that aphorisms often feature them – and they serve as symbols on heraldry, their feathers are featured in clothing, and it’s hard to escape notice of chickens wherever we go in the world today.
Chickens are the most common bird in the entire world, being bred throughout the world and able to live in harsher climates than their original range (due to domestication and specially designed coops); there are probably over 50 billion members of the genus Gallus present on the planet today. They are so common that they are a model organism – in order to understand birds as a whole, scientists do extensive studies on chickens in order to understand avian evolution. The genes and development of chickens are probably better understood than any other living kind of dinosaur. This is of special interest to members of this blog, as chicken genes have been manipulated to give them teeth (though without enamel) and longer tails – much like their non-avian dinosaur ancestors. One study even raised chickens to walk around with plungers stuck to their butts like a bony tail – and showcased how the chickens changed their head-bobbing and walking to match the redistributed weight, which makes a decent hypothesis for how non-avian dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus were able to walk (see above)!
By Scott Reid
Species Differences: Among the living species, there are distinct differences in the coloration of the males. While the females all tend to be brown and black spotted, with some patches of red on the tails and wings in some species, the males have brilliantly different colors all over. Red Junglefowl – the wild kind – are a mid sized species, and are named accordingly for their coloration. The males tend to have reddish orange heads, with green wings and bellies; their backs and back of their wings are alls reddish, though they have brilliantly green tails. Sri Lankan Junglefowl are also reddish, but instead of having green undersides to their wings and green tails, they have blueish-grey feathers in those locations. The Sri Lankan Junglefowl is also one of the smallest living species. The Grey Junglefowl also has greyish-blue tail and wing feathers, except it has a firey orange underbelly and wing top. It has grey feathers all over its body, and orange and white and black speckles on its neck. It is the largest known species. Finally, the smallest species, the Green Junglefowl, is much more than green – it is almost a rainbow of colored feathers! Its tail is green, as is its neck; but the rump tends to be yellow, the top of the wing red, and the wattle and comb aren’t red – but purple, red, yellow, and even blue! Extinct species tend to blur the line between junglefowl and their close relatives such as Peafowl (see the oldest known species, G. aesculapii, above); but in many ways, they differ mainly by living in Europe and Western Asia, rather than Southeast Asia and India.
Time and Place: About 4 million years ago, in the Zanclean of the Pliocene
Heterorhea is known from the Monte Hermoso Formation of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Physical Description: Heterorhea is only known from some isolated foot bones which were very similar to those of the modern Rhea, but in general shorter and wider. This indicates that, if Heterorhea was indeed a Rhea (see below), it would have been similar to the living Rhea but a little thicker in general proportion. This is, of course, conjecture; but it’s the best one we’ve got, as the original fossil of this animal is lost. Like living Rheas, it probably would have been a shaggy, flightless dinosaur; with a long neck, thick legs, and small pointed beak.
Diet: Heterorhea was probably a vegetation, feeding on broad-leafed plants, fruits, seeds, and roots.
Behavior: Heterorhea probably behaved at least somewhat similar to living Rheas, fairly silent birds forming large flocks fleeing in zig-zag motions. They would probably make calls during the mating season, making somewhat loud calls in mating displays and then making soft sounds to chicks when laid. They were also probably polygamous. Other than that, though, we can’t really make a lot of statements about Heterorhea behavior.
Ecosystem: Heterorhea lived in a wet, lush grassland environment, which would occasionally flood with extensive amounts of water and mud based on the turn of the seasons. This was before the onset of the Ice Age, so it was during a time of somewhat warmer climate than what the later Rheas would face. Here, Heterorhea lived alongside many other animals – a variety of frogs, Ungulates, rodents and rabbits, Toxodonts, Macraucheniids, armadillo relatives, anteaters, Glyptodonts, Thylacosmilus, Racoons, opossums, and so many other mammals. As for contemporary dinosaurs, there were a variety of ducks, the other rhea Hinasuri, Tinamus like Nothura and Eudromia, and – of course – birds of prey like seriemas, condors, and the terror bird Mesembriornis. The latter would, of course, have been a major source of danger for Heterorhea.
Other: Heterorhea is, sadly, lost; this means we can’t actually compare the fossil of this dinosaur with other birds known from the region. Thus, though it was originally called a rhea, we can’t be certain that is what it is – since that assignment came before the age of phylogenetics and more objective classification.
Referred Species: N. poecilopterus (Bar-Winged Rail), N. woodfordi (Woodford’s Rail)
Status: Extinct – Extant, Near Threatened
Time and Place: Between 12,000 years ago and today, in the Holocene of the Quaternary
These rails used to live on the island of Fiji, but today they’re only found on Guadacanal
Physical Description: The Woodford’s and Bar-Winged Rails are fairly round, plump dinosaurs, with medium-length skinny legs. They have short tails, short necks, and small heads. Like other rails, they have pointed, triangular beaks. They are fairly dark in color, with brown wings and tails; beyond that, however, they differ distinctively in terms of color. They range in size from about 30 to 33 centimeters in length.
Diet: These rails will feed upon worms, snails, insects, frogs, lizards, and small snakes. They will also feed on plant shoots when needed.
Behavior: Given their limited range – and the fact that one species is extinct – little is known about the behavior of these rails, though presumably they use their long legs to walk through dense undergrowth and soft mud. The living Woodford’s Rail breeds at any time of the year, and they do not migrate. The extinct Bar-Winged Rail would have probably nested from October through December, making nest of sedge with six eggs – but of course, we can’t corroborate that in the modern day. Today, Woodford’s Rail makes unmusical ki-ki-ki notes, as well as explosive squeals when provoked.
Woodford’s Rail, by John Gerrard Keulemans, in the Public Domain
Ecosystem: These birds live (or lived) in lowland rainforest and swamp-forests, usually in fairly remote locations. They are preyed upon by predators introduced by humans – cats and mongoose – in unsustainable numbers.
Other: The Bar-Winged Rail went extinct sometime in the 1900s, presumably due to its flightlessness – though adapted well for its habitat on an island devoid of predators, human introduction of mongoose and cats to the islands lead to their population decline and eventual elimination. The Woodford’s Rail, meanwhile, is restricted to a single island – so it is considered near threatened due to a very small population, at risk from introduced predators. As always, cats are a major threat for these birds. It is also vulnerable to habitat degradation. Luckily, there does seem to be some population increase for this species on the northern coast of the island of Guadacanal.
Species Differences: When alive, the Bar-Winged Rail was brown on top and dark grey on bottom, with a black rump. Its beak and legs were yellow. It was bigger, and probably flightless, and lived entirely on the island of Fiji. Woodford’s Rail lives in Guadacanal and is black over more of its body, with a gray face, grey beak, and white-black stripes on its rump. It is the smaller of the two species.
Time and Place: Within the last 10,000 years, in the Holocene of the Quaternary
The Long-Tailed Ground-Dove is mainly found in the Amazon basin
Physical Description: These doves are distinctive for exactly what their name would suggest – they have long tails for pigeons! Ranging between 15 and 18 centimeters in length, they are brown on top with darker brown tails and wing-tips, with black patches on the wings. Their heads are grey, with dark grey beaks. Their undersides are light brown and their rumps are white. Interestingly, they also have yellow scales – a yellow ring around their eyes, and their feet are yellow. The females tend to be paler than the males. The juveniles tend on the duller side. They are distinguished from other doves due to that long tail and the yellow color of their feet.
Diet: This Ground-Dove mainly feeds on ground seeds.
Behavior: These doves will group up together near the edges of woodlands and on the ground in grassier habitats, usually in smaller groups of three to five birds. They’ll peck around on the ground looking for sources of food together, and give high-pitched wha-oop calls when distressed or trying to keep the group together. They tend to not migrate, but stay in one region throughout the year; their breeding habits are poorly known, though they probably start matings in the dry season.
By Bernard Dupont, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ecosystem: These doves are found primarily in seasonally wet grasslands, savannas and on forest edges. They avoid denser vegetations or humid regions, opting for more scrubland habitats.
Other: Long-Tailed Ground Doves aren’t threatened with extinction; they’re fairly common, but not the most common doves in the Amazon, especially during the dry season. They are found in other locations such as the Poconé region. Habitat destruction, however, is a major threat again this bird, especially today.
Referred Species: B. brailloni, B. leadbeateri (Southern Ground Hornbill), B. abyssinicus (Abyssinian/Northern Ground Hornbill)
Status: Extinct – Extant, Vulnerable
Time and Place: From about 12 million years ago, in the Serravallian of the Miocene, through today
Ground Hornbills are known from across the entire African continent
Physical Description: Ground Hornbills are truly impressive living dinosaurs, large in body and bulky in form. They can reach up to 100 centimeters in length, weighing as much as 6 kilograms. They are black over most of their bodies (leading to their being named for crows and ravens, which they are not closely related to at all), with grey legs and grey bills. They also have grey crests on the tops of their heads. Their heads feature bright coloration which is distinguished from the rest of the body – red patches, blue patches, yellow bits, and wattles, which vary from species to species. The undersides of their wings are white, and they have short and thin tails. Called hornbills for their very large, pointed beaks, these bills make up a major chunk of their heads. They also, interestingly enough, have eyelashes on their eyes to aid in protecting them. The juveniles are somewhat brown, and they become more black in color as they age.
Northern Ground Hornbills by Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0
Diet: Ground Hornbills primarily feed upon arthropods such as insects, spiders, and scorpions. They also feed upon other invertebrates like snails, and larger prey such as snakes, lizards, small mammals, and carrion. Though they have been recorded feeding upon berries, they are primarily carnivorous.
Southern Ground Hornbill by Francesco Veronesi, CC BY-SA 2.0
Behavior: Ground Hornbills are extremely fascinating creatures, able to fly but spending most of their time on the ground searching for sources of food. They will move slowly and carefully, searching around for prey that then is picked up with their large bill, very carefully and in a picky fashion from the ground. They forage in small groups – with a mate, or with their offspring. They rarely gather in large groups, usually only when food is especially abundant. They’ll even dig into the ground or poop looking for food. When large prey is found, groups will gather and attack it together, dismembering it as a team. These are extremely vocal birds, making low-pitched hoots at each other often at two different pitches. They will make softer hoots when snuggling with each other, and deep alarm grunts. They are often known to call for long periods of time. They do not migrate, but do wander about; juveniles will stay where their parents lived for many years.
Northern Ground Hornbill by Sakari A. Maaranen, CC BY 3.0
The Ground Hornbills are cooperative breeders – the dominant pair will be assisted by juvenile and younger adult helpers, all defending the nesting territory fiercely. Males will prepare their nests in large tree cavities, sometimes in rock holes or baskets – they will line the hole with dry leaves, and not seal the entrance. Two to three eggs are laid and incubated for two months by the dominant female of the group. Upon hatching, the group members will feed the babies together, but usually the second or third eggs don’t survive – either the eggs don’t hatch, or the chicks starve to death. The chicks stay in the nest for three more months, and the juveniles stick with their families for a little while after hatching. They tend to reach sexual maturity between six and seven, but they don’t usually breed for the first time until later. They also tend to breed only once every three years – a rarity for birds. The birds can live for a very long time – in captivity, they’ve been seen living for up to 40 years.
Southern Ground Hornbill by Lip Kee, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ecosystem: Ground Hornbills live in a variety of habitats, across woodland and savanna, as well as grassland patches. The Southern Ground Hornbills live in more moist habitats than the Northern Ground Hornbills. They are often fed upon by large carnivores such as leopards, and can be a host for a wide variety of parasites and diseases.
Northern Ground Hornbill by Bernard Dupont, CC BY-SA 2.0
Other: All living Ground Hornbills are recorded as being vulnerable to extinction at this time. Despite being extremely widespread, they are sparse across their range. This sparseness makes it harder for them to find others of their species and mate with them. They are often hunted and killed, or even murdered as a bringer of bad luck in some cultures. Ground Hornbills also break window panes and are killed for that, in addition to being killed for being a harbinger of drought. Habitat loss also greatly contributes to their decline in population. They do live in several national parks, and there are conservation efforts to aid in its reproduction, using the abandoned eggs to raise more of the birds. Reintroduction, however, is more difficult than anticipated.
Southern Ground Hornbill by Derek Keats, CC BY 2.0
Species Differences: The Northern Ground-Hornbill is known from Central Africa, and features blue patches on its face with a yellow bit in the front. Males have red additions to their throat wattles. The Southern Ground-Hornbill, on the other hand, is all red, with no yellow or blue to be found. They are also found in southern Africa. In addition to all of this, the Northern Ground-Hornbill is somewhat lighter in weight than the Southern Ground-Hornbill. The extinct species, B. brailloni, was from much more north – in Morocco – and was much older, as well as a little smaller, than its living relatives.
Northern Ground Hornbill by Noel Reynolds, CC BY 2.0
Time and Place: Between 53.5 and 48.5 million years ago, in the Ypresian of the Eocene
Foro is known from the Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation of Wyoming
Physical Description: Foro had a downward sloping, distinctive skull, with a slight point to the tip at the end of the beak, hanging off of a long neck. It had a large, rounded head, a fairly stout body, and long spindly legs. Its wings were decently sized too, making this in general a very lanky sort of bird. However, these wings were probably weak, and in addition to the stocky body it wouldn’t have been the world’s greatest flier. As for its general size, it was probably about the size of a modern roadrunner, reaching between 22 and 24 centimeters in length; it was probably similar in many ways to living roadrunners, while simultaneously being like a bustard, a hoatzin, and a relative of the modern day turacos. Evolution is wild, man.
Diet: Given it had the general head-shape of a Hoatzin, it seems at least somewhat likely that Foro was herbivorous, though this was of course evolved convergently to the Hoatzin (as Foro was probably a stem-turaco). This is further corroborated by the fact that turacos are also mostly herbivorous.
Behavior: Foro was a ground-dwelling bird, rather than tree-dwelling like modern turacos; it would use its long legs to wander about its lake environment, searching for food to eat and moving through more difficult ground material such as mud and dirt. In this way it was much more like a living bustard than a living turaco, indicating the bustard way of life was actually the ancestral case for cuckoos and turacos before they adapted for their unique arboreal roles. As a weird cross between a bustard and a wading bird, it would have spent a good amount of time moving about the ground, grabbing food from the mud and in the low-lying plants, and running away rapidly at the first sign of danger. It was still able to fly, and would use that when the danger was way too close. As a bird, it would have been an active animal; it is especially uncertain whether or not it was particularly social, but it probably took care of its young.
By Scott Reid
Ecosystem: The Green River Formation is a famous environment from the early Eocene of North America, showcasing the burst of creatures after the end-Cretaceous extinction that came forward as the global rainforest reached its peak, and serving as a host of creatures that were precursors to modern forms. This was a fossil lake system scattered across the jungle in loosely dense vegetation, including sycamore trees and ferns, palms, and many other kinds of plants. As the Rocky Mountains formed nearby, nutrients would randomly spike in the lake, dumping phosphorus and suffocating the fish inside. This lead to unique preservation and an amazing number of fossils from Green River. Here there were a variety of rays, catfish, herrings, and countless other fish; crocodilians like Borealosuchus; early primates, bats, and an armadillo-esque mammal. Birds were also extremely common: there was the gull-like frigatebird Limnofregata, the Lithornithids Pseudocrypturus and Calciavis, the flamingo-duck Presbyornis, the pre-pheasant Gallinuloides, the early swift-hummingbird Eocypselus, the frogmouth-esque Fluvioviridavis and Prefica, the mousebird Anneavis, the woodpecker Neanis, the Parrots of Prey Cyrilavis and Tynskya, and the parrot-footed passerines Zygodactylus and Eozygodactylus. In this way, Foro was a notable and usual member of the ecosystem, showcasing the weird mode of evolution of the modern Turaco group.
Other: Foro has been the subject of a fascinating research history, with it originally being called its own thing in the Cuckoos, and then thought to be a Hoatzin for a while, and then finally assigned as a stem-turaco. This is of utter importance because it showcases how neotropical birds like the turacos (which, today, are limited to Africa) were once widespread – this also applies to many other groups of birds, and this collapse of tropical birds in North America and Europe is an object of intense study. As the Global rainforest collapsed, the evolutionary trajectory of modern birds changed dramatically, and Foro was a part of that. On the other hand, Foro and other birds known from the Paleocene and Eocene epochs showcase how dinosaurs managed to bounce back from the extinction; birds were more ground-dwelling than tree-dwelling at first, given the lack of trees in impact winter; Foro was a ground-dwelling bird, but one on the path to tree-life, much like many other dinosaurs in this early part of the new era.
By Bernard Dupont, CC BY-SA 2.0
A Dinosaur A Day 