Mesembriornis
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Mesembriornis is an extinct species of predator bird that is part of the 'Terror Bird' group. Mesembriornis was a terror bird of unknown size, growing between 1.5 and 2 meters in height.
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[edit] Debate on Mesembriornis
A study called terror birds on the run measured how fast ancient terror birds could run. It was found that a terror bird's average top speed was 50 miles or 70 km/h, this is not disputed heavily. However the speed of Mesembriornis is now heavily debated. This is probably due to the fact that the method of calculation was not as accurate as other mathematical methods, of course these methods are impossible because, like other terror birds, this beast's bones are fragmentary. The next two sections are on the two sides of this debate.
[edit] Crushing Kicks
A group of scientists have suggested that terror birds had bone shattering kicks. They may have used this kick to take down prey or defend kills. If it also attained the speed first thought as well as this kick, it could not have been forced off kills as easily as cheetahs
in Africa.
[edit] Cheetah of the Tertiary
This school of thought suggests Mesmbriornis may have lived somewhat like a modern day cheetah, eating the South American hoofed mammals of the time (Miocene) using its speed to outrun the beasts. It's top speed is a matter of debate,but estimates go up to 90 kilometers per hour. Some other scientists like to scale down the predators speed to 85, 80, 75 or even the average phorusrhacid speed of 70 km/h
[edit] Sources
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0801_050801_terrorbirds_2.html http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-on-phorusrhacids-biggest-fastest.html http://dubitable.com/?q=aggregator&page=15&from=100 Note the last artical could not be found, however it states that Mesembriornis was six feet or 2 meters tall in the begining segment presented by the search engine. Once examined it was confirmed that this was not two seperate articles but a single article.
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