Fossils of Giant Ancient Bird Found on Indonesian
 Artist鈥檚 impression of the giant stork next to a Homo floresiensis hobbit. |
Avid birders would undoubtedly love to espy the newly discovered prehistoric giant marabou stork鈥攆rom a distance, that is. The six-foot-tall, 35-pound creature may have hunted the human-like hobbits鈥擧omo floresiensis, a hominin species closely related to us, but smaller鈥攖hat also inhabited Indonesia鈥檚 Flores island during the Pleistocene.
While there鈥檚 no direct evidence the storks ate hobbits, it鈥檚 possible, paleontologist Hanneke Meijer of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History told the . Meijer and colleagues found fossilized leg bone fragments from what they believe is one stork in the Liang Bua caves. The bones were found in sediments between 20,000 and 50,000 years old.
鈥淔inding large birds of prey is common on islands, but I wasn't expecting to find a giant marabou stork," Meijer told the BBC.
Meijer and his colleague Rokus Due of the National Center for Archaeology in Jakarta, Indonesia, think the bird鈥攃alled Leptoptilos robustus鈥攑robably evolved from flying storks that populated the island. The giant marabou stork itself didn鈥檛 fly much, if at all, they suspect. 鈥淭he large body size and terrestrial lifestyle of L. robustus are responses to an unbalanced, insular environment with abundant prey items and a lack of mammalian carnivores, and emphasize the extraordinary nature of the Homo floresiensis fauna,鈥 they write in the .
No one knows for certain why the stork and hobbit went extinct, but a volcanic eruption may have contributed to their demise.
For those interested in other bird mysteries (or fans of Sesame Street), check out senior editor Julie Leibach's post on .
No one knows for certain why the stork and hobbit went extinct, but a volcanic eruption may have contributed to their demise.
For those interested in other bird mysteries (or fans of Sesame Street), check out senior editor Julie Leibach's post on .