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Binary_Bark
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The fossilised bone of a giant flying turkey (top) as compared with that of a regular turkey (bottom). The megapode birds lived during the Pleistocene era, between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago.
A giant, flying turkey as tall as a kangaroo once roamed Australia, palaeontologists said Wednesday, after an analysis of fossils and bones from around the country revealed five extinct bird species.
A team from Flinders University in South Australia said they were all chunky relatives of today's malleefowl and brush-turkeys.
The megapode birds lived during the Pleistocene era, between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago, alongside other giant Australian animals like diprotodons, marsupial lions and short-faced kangaroos.
Scientists had initially thought the fossils, first found in the 1880s, represented a single ancient bird, but fresh examination has led them to conclude they belong to five different species.
Among them was a turkey weighing up to eight kilograms (17 pounds) and standing taller than a grey kangaroo, which can reach 1.3 metres (4ft 3ins)—four times the size of modern fowl.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-giant-turkey-roamed-australia.html#jCp
