Around 1.5-2 million years ago, a giant bird ran across the arid landscape of Crimea. The animal, Pachystruthio dmanisensis, was 11 and a half feet tall, had a long neck and long legs. This was one of the biggest known birds to ever live.
Pachystruthio looked something like a modern ostrich, which is the largest bird alive today. However, the ancient avian was four times as heavy, weighing in at nearly a thousand pounds.
It is one of the biggest birds ever discovered, but there are a few that are even heavier: Dromornis stirtoni and Vorombe titan. Both animals stood nearly 10 feet tall and had long, ostrich-like legs, with tiny wings, too small for flying. The animals likely lived in a similar way to modern ostriches, but there’s not enough data yet to determine whether they were closely related.
The two larger species may have been too large and heavy for running fast, too. However, the long, thin bone of Pachystruthio indicates that it could have been adapted for running fast through the wide open fields of its habitat. The researchers suggest that early humans may have killed and eaten the large bird and its eggs. Imagine how many people a 450 kg chicken could feed!