Potential largest terror bird uncovered in Colombia

The fossilised leg bone was uncovered in the La Venta Formation in Colombia’s Tatacoa Desert and is believed to be the largest terror bird ever discovered to date. 

The bones were identified by a team lead by National University of Córdoba researcher, Federico Javier Degrange as coming from an animal standing at 2.5 metres (8 feet) in height and 156 kg (344 lbs) in weight, the largest terror bird known to science. This particular bird would have lived 12 million years ago, during the Miocene Epoch, when the arid Tatacoa was a tropical wetland and South America was its own continent separate from North America and home to a unique array of animals. 

It's not only its large size that makes the La Venta Terror Bird significant, but it is also the northernmost terror bird species discovered in South America, as Degrange said: “I really hope to find more parts of the skeleton to better analyse the body size of this animal and the evolution of the whole terror bird group. Because everything about terror birds is fascinating.” 

Terror birds lived in both North and South America from forty-three million years ago to one hundred thousand years ago. Although they are extinct the terror birds’ closest living relative are the Seriemas, which are also carnivorous birds from South America.