Ancient DNA Helps Solve the Legend of Giant Eagles

nomrniceguy writes "Gigantic eagles swooping from the skies to rescue Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings may not be just the stuff of legends and fairytales, according to research published in the journal PloS Biology. McMaster University anthropologist Michael Bunce has shed new light on the evolution of the extinct Haast's eagle, the giant bird that once ruled the skies over New Zealand. Weighing between 20 and 30 pounds, the enormous Haast's Eagle dominated its environment. It was 30 to 40 per cent heavier than the largest living bird of prey around today, the Harpy Eagle of Central and South America."

Comments

already known

[uits]

Note that the article isn't about them finding out such birds existed, but just that it was a relative of a smaller bird. LOTR reference + Science article = Front Page?

What the heck is with New Zealand/Indonesia

[Marxist Hacker 42]

And a sudden explosion of Lord Of The Rings related discoveries? I know the movie was filemed there, but first hobbits and now giant eagles? What's next, we're going to find walking trees?

Re:What the heck is with New Zealand/Indonesia

[greylion3]

Well, these critters do exist, and there might have been a bigger sub-species of them in NZ some time ago.. =)

Re:Existence already demonstrated

[Anonymous Coward]

"Comparative genomics is a useful science, but it's not at the point of telling us what an eagle's adult wingspan is yet."

Nor does it tell us the difference in airspeed between the African and European varieties...