The bird skull is Dromornis stirtoni – a three metre
tall, flightless bird. Amongst, if not the, heaviest bird that ever lived. It
would have been about ½ ton. It was probably a herbivore but the huge bill has
convinced some that it was a meat-eater or scavenger!!
It is from the NT Museum’s Alcoota
fossil dig near to Alice Springs. About ~8 million years old (Late Miocence).
Cheers Dan
-----Original
Message-----
From: Tony
Lawson [
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009
10:59
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Fw:
Invitation to the 2009 Malcolm McIntosh Lecture
This may be of interest to some - it looks like a fossil of a
bird's beak in the illustration.
