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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThis bird has just discovered that golf balls bounce on concrete and he's absolutely loving it:
Link to tweet
Picaro
(1,527 posts)Don't recognize the bird species. Someone out there has to know...
Ocelot II
(115,927 posts)And it probably thinks the golf ball is an egg and is trying to crack it open. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seriema
teach1st
(5,935 posts)The Cute Bird Playing With a Golf Ball Is Actually Trying to Kill It
Slate
https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/the-cute-birds-playing-with-golf-balls-are-actually-trying-to-kill-them.html
Ocelot II
(115,927 posts)Wednesdays
(17,457 posts)When I first read your post, I was thinking they went out in the K-Pg mass extinction 66 million years ago, but after reading up on them, turns out they were still around at the dawn of humans, just 100k years ago!
cab67
(3,010 posts)Phorusrhachids are primarily South American, with a brief appearance in North America and, IIRC, a record on islands off the coast of Antarctica.
In North America and Eurasia, we had gastornithids. These were basal anseriforms (related to ducks and their relatives). Isotopic evidence suggests they were mostly eating fruit, but they looked like phorusrhachids and would have been way cooler if they were predators.
There were also the mihirungs in Australasia.
Simultaneously, there were crocodyliforms that independently acquired compressed snouts, serrated teeth, and hoof-like terminal phalanges. These were literally "hoofed crocodiles."
Archosaurs were definitely among the dominant land predators during the Paleogene of the Northern Hemisphere and later in the Southern.
cab67
(3,010 posts)The other two are roadrunners and African secretary birds.
Fun and useless fact - these three groups helped a student and I debunk one of the lines of reasoning behind claiming that larger and more "robust" tyrannosaurs were female. This was claimed, in part, because females are usually larger than males in birds of prey. But we showed that the degree of difference depends on feeding mode - females are substantially larger in birds that fly after other birds (e.g. goshawks, sharp-shinned hawks, some falcons), larger but not to a substantial degree in birds that subdue prey on the ground but feed in trees (e.g. most other hawks and eagles, owls), the same size as males in birds that feed on the ground (e.g. Old and New World vultures), and smaller than males in birds that hunt on the ground (e.g. secretary birds, seriemas, roadrunners).
This isn't to say larger tyrannosaurs were necessarily male, but the analogy doesn't work - tyrannosaurs weren't flying after their prey.
druidity33
(6,450 posts)there was a lot of collating data of weight and height and sex of different birds. Was this for a paper? Or a curiosity exercise?
cab67
(3,010 posts)There are a couple of abstracts out there based on her work, but not an actual paper. Still, I'm proud of what my student accomplished.
Some of the data came from an earlier edition of this:
https://www.amazon.com/CRC-Handbook-Avian-Body-Masses/dp/0849342589
cab67
(3,010 posts)Lots of birds eat eggs. They don't throw them on the ground - they just drop them.
It's possible the bird is acting out of frustration - why isn't this egg cracking open like it should if I just drop it? - but it could also be enjoying itself.
(Kenn Kaufmann is a highly respected authority, so I say this out of respect.)
i thought it was having fun!
Ocelot II
(115,927 posts)dem4decades
(11,314 posts)Ocelot II
(115,927 posts)PJMcK
(22,061 posts)Get it?
(snort)
AKwannabe
(5,686 posts)But also making sure to get outta the way!
KornFusing!
KS Toronado
(17,402 posts)LudwigPastorius
(9,216 posts)Grins
(7,246 posts)Find a shellfish on the beach, fly high over a driveway or parking lot - and let go! Hoping it will open.
Emile
(23,066 posts)Martin Eden
(12,881 posts)That was awesomely hilatious