PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons
↓ More info below ↓
About 5 million years ago, a new predator made its way from the south and onto the coastal plains of North America. It was a giant, flightless, carnivorous bird and came to be known by one of the coolest and most richly earned nicknames in all of paleontology: the terror bird.
Correction! Thanks to Ben Creisler for pointing out that at 4:10, we mixed up the Paleogene Period with the Neogene Period. We regret the error and hope you still find these birds as terrifying as we do.
Thanks to Julio Lacerda and Studio 252mya for the Titanis illustration. You can find more of Julio’s work here: https://252mya.com/gallery/julio-lacerda
Produced for PBS Digital Studios.
Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow
Twitter – https://twitter.com/eonsshow
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/
References:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/8/e1600883
https://www.britannica.com/place/Gondwana-supercontinent
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150727-the-reign-of-the-terror-birds
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2006/10/terror-birds-bigger-and-faster
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/04/new-species-terror-bird-discovered
http://hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca/flightless/phorus.htm
https://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vertebrate-fossils/species/titanis-walleri
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6313741.stm
https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/relser1/overview
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=4073
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/files/6313/9447/0040/bulletin-gouldquitmyerlowres.pdf
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40035724
http://www.bio-nica.info/Biblioteca/MacFadden2007TerrorBirdsRedated.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24942595.pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/geb.12504/abstract
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011856
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/272/1574/1769
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0801_050801_terrorbirds.html
Watch Now
