Fossils discovered in Australia are from an extinct type of eagle that was
large enough to catch prey the height of hobbits, much like the gigantic
eagles depicted in "The Lord of the Rings."
An ancient hulk of an eagle that once flew over Australia resembles the
imagined gigantic eagles from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel "The Lord of
the Rings," according to a new research on the extinct birds. Even though
the actual giants weren't as huge as their mythical counterparts (and almost
certainly couldn't be mounted by a magician), they were probably heavy
enough to use their enormous claws to capture hobbit-sized prey.
The new species, Dynatoaetus gaffae, was named after a group of remains
discovered between 1959 and 2021 in a 56-foot-deep (17-meter) vertical
tunnel in the Australian state of South Australia. The bones, which include
wings, legs, talons, a breastbone, and a skull, show that the enormous bird
probably had talons that were about 12 inches (30 centimeters) long and a
wingspan of about 10 feet (3 meters), making it Australia's biggest bird of
prey on record, according to a recent study that was published on March 15
in the Journal of Ornithology.
It was enormous, according to research co-author and animal paleontologist
Trevor Worthy of Flinders University in Australia. He
continued that it was probably the largest eagle on the globe at the time
and resided between 50,000 and 700,000 years ago.
Australia was home to a variety of other enormous animals during the
eagle's rule, including big flightless birds, enormous kangaroos
(Procoptodon sp.), enormous monitor lizards (Varanus priscus), and bear-like
marsupials. (Diprotodon optatum). According to researchers, D. gaffae may
have preyed on young or weak members of these enormous species. These
animals might have reached the size of extant kangaroos, like the western
gray kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus), which stands at a height of about 4.3
feet (1.3 meters). According to the "Lord of the Rings" novels, hobbits were
between 3 and 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) tall.
According to Wiki Fandom, despite its enormous height, D. gaffae was much
smaller than the enormous eagles from Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the
Rings" movies, which had spans of up to 75 feet (23 m).D. gaffae, however, was bigger than the wedge-tailed eagle of Australia
(Aquila audax), which is still living and most likely coexisted with D.
gaffae before the larger eagle species became extinct.
D. gaffae resembles extant eagles in the genus Spilornis, which has six
species that are found in Asia and share a similar body structure. The
Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), the biggest of these, feeds on
young pigs, deer, lemurs, monkeys, and bats. In an essay for Australasian Science, research lead author Ellen Mather, a PhD
applicant in paleontology at Flinders University, noted that D. gaffae and
P. jefferyi both have large and strong legs for their size, allowing them to
assault and take away large targets.
Only two extinct species of eagle were bigger than D. gaffae: the gigantic
Haasts eagle of New Zealand (Hieraaetus moorei), which dove straight into
deceased prey to consume the organs, and Gigantohierax suarezi, which
pursued enormous rodents in Cuba. Both of these species were larger and had
wingspans comparable to those of D. gaffae.
Other prehistoric eagles have been found in Australia in recent years
besides D. gaffae. Archaehierax sylvestris, a previously undiscovered
species that probably pursued big koalas around 25 million years ago, was
discovered by scientists in 2021.
