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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."
At the top of the food chain was the Haast's Eagle, the only eagle known to have been the top predator in a major terrestrial ecosystem. The eagles hunted moa, the herbivorous, flightless birds of New Zealand, which can weigh more than 400 pounds. Scientists believe the eagle died out within two centuries of human settlement of New Zealand.
Gee, this is news? "Predator Species dies out after mankind hunts prey nearly to extinction". Film at 11.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Say what you will, but an entire ecosystem with an avian apex predator is damned interesting stuff. Inspiration for a good ScFi novel, to be sure.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
All of which reminds me of a day out driving around in the Meade County South Dakota rolling plains. On a graveled road, running about 40 mph in an studebaker lark of 1961 vintage (good year btw), but then this was in the later 60's, so it was just another chair car then.
Anyway, I could see something sitting on a fencepost half a mile away, and as I drew nearer, I could see it was a good sized specimen of the American Golden Eagle that might have weighed 8 to 10 lbs.
As I drew near the post, the eagle spread its considerable wings (4.5 to 5 feet of them, very impressive to me) and literally fell off the post forward, catching itself with a couple of strokes of its wings. Rising up to the level of the open window on the passenger side, it flew alongside me for about half a mile, with its head turned to look me over most of the time, and looking as if it was considering me for lunch.
Eventually, I think it came to the conclusion that I was either too big to tackle, or in too small a space for it to fly into, and the wings, which had been beating about once every 1.5 seconds making the flight look very easy, missed a beat, then flaired out, along with the tail flicking this way and that as it steered into a stall about 2 inches above the next post top, and it settled in to watch the now new piece of real-estate in its view for anything that moved.
This birds flight noises were totally covered by the ambient sounds of doing 40 mph on a gravel road with the windows open, the well muffled motor itself not making a noticable contribution to the background noise. I could easily see this bird coming in from behind a prarie dog and picking him off his hole and the dog never knowing the bird was there till it was way too late if there was any sort of wind blowing to generate some masking sounds. And in that country, thats usually the case.
One of those memories from almost 40 years back up the log that one never forgets, to look an wild eagle in the eye from about 7 feet for a good piece of a minute.
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Cheers, Gene
The researchers say, "Such rapid size change is unprecedented in birds and animals".
p eciation.asp
They might not know, but significant changes have been observed over very short periods in fish (I hope these count as "animals") -- http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v23/i2/s
(Yours truly &:-) (be nice to me and maybe I'll make an account)