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FILE: BRUTORNIS GRAVIS

Name meaning in Latin: HEAVY BRUTAL BIRD

TAXONOMY
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Superorder: Australaves
Order: Cariamiformes
Suborder: Phorusrhacoidea
Family: Phorusrhacidae
Subfamily: Phorusrhacinae
Genus: Brutornis
Species: Brutornis Gravis

Length: On average 6 to 7 feet long from the tip of their beak to the ends of their tails feathers (1.8 to 2.1 meters in length)
Height: On average 6 to 7 feet tall at the hip 12 to 14 feet tall at the top of the skull (1.8 to 2.1 meters at the hip while 3.6 to 4.2 meters in total)
Weight: On average 1500 to 3000 pounds ( 680 to 1360 kilograms in weight)
Ecological Niche: Cursorial pursuit predator of the grasslands, prairies and open savannahs and sparsely open forests of skull island
Danger Level: HIGH Mainly due to the fact it hunts just about anything it can physically size up to with humans included but become more dangerous if a mob of Brutornis is nearby or if it perceives one as a threat to their chicks
Life expectancy: 60 to 80 years
Sexual Maturity: 5 to 10 years for both sexes

“ When it comes to skull island there are many sorts of animals here that are able to truly encapsulate the sheer uncanny valley level on the human psyche. While the dinosaurs here may have their own form of effect they are only a FRACTION of the animals that truly shows you just what kind of a savage and other worldly place skull island is, ESPECIALLY the prehistoric animals that most people don’t really know about or see that much in media. Brutornis is one such case as this thing is what true fear is like for those who happen to get stranded on that godforsaken island where your death doesn’t come from a V Rex or venatosaur but by a twelve to fourteen foot tall flightless bird that has a hatchet like beak that can break the skull of a horse and lion and then look down upon you with large and beady eyes as it’s next meal. - Zachary Reynolds Foundation paleo ornithologist upon the Brutornis 2006”

" Bloody hell....it looks like a turkey if it was made by the devil himself to be a brutal killing machine" Alek 'Lumpy' Semenov chef and member for the first foundation expedition to skull island in 1933 that shot and killed the first specimen to be examined by the foundation "

Following the wake of the extinction of the non avian dinosaurs outside of skull island the remaining archosaurs, the crocodilians and the last remaining dinosaurs the birds, would have to adapt to living in a world ruled by mammals that had arisen from the ashes of the extinct dinosaurs. However throughout the Cenozoic at least until just roughly 2 to 1.5 million years ago there was one landmass that wasn’t ruled by mammals but instead by the last remaining dinosaurs the birds. This continent is what is now modern day South America where before it’s position where it is today it was once joined with Africa for all of the Paleozoic and two thirds of the Mesozoic until 110 million years ago.

Even when the asteroid that concluded the age of the dinosaurs struck the earth South America had become totally isolated from the rest of the planet. Despite the loss of south americas dinosaurs it was able to actually bounce back and even prosper regardless of its geographical position being close to the site of the chicxulub impact crater that signified the end of the Mesozoic. Here the continent would bear witness to expansive regions of neotropical rainforest that would be a place for life to teem particularly reptiles and birds. And while South America would develop its own mammals the reality was they were only denizens not masters rather that title would go to the Phorusrhacids or as they are more aptly known….THE TERROR BIRDS.

Roughly appearing in the fossil record about 10 million years or so after the extinction of the non avian dinosaurs terror birds are part of a group of birds known as cariamas which still exist today in South America which are close relatives of modern falcons, parrots and songbirds with the sole surviving members being the red and black legged seriamas with the red legged species being the most widespread of the two having a geographic range that covers Brazil, paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and a tiny sliver or Bolivia. In the present the seriema is south America’s ecological equivalent to the African secretary bird where while they possess the ability to fly they spend most of their time on the ground to hunt prey with flight not being seen as important for their hunting of insects, snakes, lizards, frogs, young birds, and rodents.

In the Cenozoic however the family that seriemas is apart of was much more diverse and widespread and more importantly had much bigger relatives in the form of the terror birds. If one was to simplify the basic premise of the phorusrhacids as a whole then they are in essence a avian attempt to fill in the void left by the absence of large theropod dinosaurs that worked surprisingly well for most of the cenozoic until around roughly 100,000 years. During their time they occupied a wide array of predatory niches that allowed them to hunt just about within reason save for certain exceptions with them ranging from smaller 3 foot tall forms to massive 10 foot tall goliaths that actually directly competed with south americas native mammal predators and are now known to have hunted unique endemic ungulates that would have grown to the size of modern horses.

In life terror birds were mainly bipedal and had become flightless yet powerful pursuit hunters with estimated speeds by paleontologists believed to be at 30 miles an hour or 48 kilometers per second meaning if they weren’t restricted to skull island they would be fast enough to hunt and chase down wild cattle and feral horses where their main means of killing being a large and powerful beak that would have been very sharp and functioned in a manner like a hatchet or axe courtesy of a strong and flexible neck in which the animal would use its head to viciously peck and hack at either the neck or back of the head of a fleeing animal where the goal was to make the animal trip and tumble and fall over due to the successive amount of cranial trauma before it would use its powerful clawed feet to either pin down or slash at the exposed underside of animals with the beak also being used in conjunction with the claws to tear open major arteries or the neck to allow blood loss and shock to finish off its prey before it would begin to eat.

What made them so successful was that like theropod dinosaurs before them the terror birds had a very special respiratory system that allowed them to keep themselves steady on the move which allowed the genus to all be powerful and very agile runners that until the connection of south america to north america by the isthamus of panama 2.7 million years they ruled the open savannahs and plains of cenozoic south america totally uncontested and forced every other mammalian predator on the continent to be specialized forest dwelling hunters as through recent understandings and discoveries it is hypothesized that terror birds to some extant may have been social animals which may have meant mobs of terror birds could have been possible in cenozoic south america that would have overwhelmed any mammalian carnivore living during the height of their reign which was perhaps a contributer to why they ruled so well as current evidence shows that when savanna ecosystems spread across south america the population of terror birds bloomed as a result.

In fact the phorusrhacids were one of a select number of south american animals that actually spread into ice age north america during the great american interchange with fossils of their group found as far north as the southern United States of America with the most largest one in the fossil record being Titanis which stood at a full height of ten feet tall and even directly competed with the predators there such as the saber toothed cats or dire wolfs that it now encountered in ice age north america due to it being a pursuit based predator of large game. However the reality of the interchange was a double edged sword for the terror birds as while the larger species that hunted big game prospered the more smaller ones were outcompeted by arriving fauna from north america meaning all that remained were the modern seriamas who were able to withstand the faunal displacements.

As for the larger species of terror birds how exactly they went extinct is still currently unknown as humanities impact that led to the extinction of many cenozoic animals at the end of the last ice age is still being uncovered and learned as speak. However unlike other ice age animals such as the mammoths or saber toothed cats when exactly they went extinct is still intensely debated due to fossils of different relatives of the group being found over varying ranges of time that, as it stands currently in the year 2023, anywhere between one and a half and one hundred thousand years ago is when they went extinct. What is known however was that humanity ( at least what we know of) had no actual direct role into their extinction as there no fossils or remains of any ancient human groups coming into contact with the terror birds meaning they more than likely happened to have been gone before humans arrived into the americas or at the least been isolated into small populations that they had faded away into extinction where the current standing was that as climate change led to loss in large prey many carnivores such saber tooths and dire wolves died out due to their lifestyles of hunting large game being unable to cope with the changes with the terror birds meeting a similar fate albeit unlike them they still have small relatives in south america today....that was until the foundation discovered skull island where it turns out terror birds still roam.

When Exactly the phorusrhacids as a group arrived onto skull island is still unknown as the islands fossil record is still incomplete and being dug up as we speak but through our efforts we have managed to piece together a basic idea of their history on skull island. Based off current finds it is believed the phorusrhacids arrived onto skull island around 50 million years ago but it would seem that due to the constant anomalous geologic movements of skull island all across the planet the island circled about around south america at different points in time as fossils have been found of different species of terror bird that existed in different parts of cenozoic south america which has now led to their arrival onto the island was less of one singular origin but rather multiple sporadic influx events over the course of millions of years where different populations arrived and had to adapt to the myriad of conditions on the island until eventually the modern skull island terror birds would arise from different species hybridizng over many generations with the latest terror birds being of titanis which was believed to have been hybrized into other populations onto the island which helped to allow for the existence of the animal of this file...the BRUTORNIS GRAVIS or the heavy brutal bird

representing the pinnacle of the phorusrhacids both in the fossil record and on skull island the brutornis takes the title of being the largest carnivorous flightless bird to have ever evolved with specimens ranging in height to 12 to 14 feet tall placing them at a few feet lower than that of a giraffe with their heavy part of the name coming from the fact they can weigh on average a ton in weight with them capable of reaching a ton and a half depending on certain conditions. From what is understood the brutornis, like many other animals on skull island, is the result of many species of terror bird hybridizing over millions of years due to the excessive amount of dangerous conditions warranting such with the brutornis being derived from terror bird species that were overall very muscular and bore powerful and strong builds with recent genetic analysis indicating they recently hybridized with the american titanis species around three to two million years ago.

Now to understand how brutornis is the way they are we need to understand how terror birds as a whole had to adapt on skull island. Unlike their original habitat in south america where the only other predators were forest dwelling mammal marsupials that filled the role of large big cats skull island is home to many species of large theropod dinosaur which the terror birds convergently evolved to be in the manner of which practically out weighed anything they had to deal with by a factor of 20. Therefore the terror birds could not afford to be as how they were given the size of the animals they now had to deal with on skull island as well as the fact they also had to deal with more intelligent hunters such as the venatosaurs which were more intelligent than anything they ever faced that are smart enough to use packs to bring them down.

Thus the terror birds niche partitioned and would become part of a trophic level which the foundation has dubbed "vassal hunters" being animals on skull island that exceed the size of big cats but fall under medium to large sized theropods like the V rex and gorophaganax. The brutornis is the most common and widespread of the group as they overall opted for a more powerful build where they are comfortable hunting in tall grasslands, prairies and open forests where they often times but not always avoid competition with the venatosaurs and V rexes as those tend to focus on dense labyrinthine jungle and open areas next to forest respectively where the terror birds dont really utilize cover as much though fights with young V rexes on their own or lost and isolated venatosaurs are known to take place and one on one the brutornis is actually able to successfully kill either two most of the time in a direct one on one confrontation depending on the circumstances but if faced with a full pack of venatosaurs or a full grown v rex is where the fortunes change to where the brutornis loses.

As for their prey due to their size they will hunt just about anything within reason to their size in the their local area from small game such as skull island rabbits and small dicynodonts to large animals such as ligocristus and ligocristus young who got lost and isolated from their herd to find themselves at the receiving end of their powerful and sharp beak. Their beak over millions of years of evolution and continued exposure to the unique anomalous energies of skull island has overall become very strong allowing them to peck and stab through even bone and armor that can withstand high amounts of stress and pressure meaning they can actually use their beaks to peck and break wood and stone to help them bring down prey hiding in trees and rocky structures and use gravity to help bring it down to get them.

Onto the rest of the body the brutornis as a whole has overall developed a very muscular build that allows it to be able to more than grapple and brawl with animals in its size range such as equally sized theropod dinosaurs, Skull island Big cats, giant insects, synapsids, land dwelling crocodilians, giant snakes, giant centipedes and othe animals of equal mass to it as not only is it massive its also uncannily fast and reactive for its size where it can use its sharp claws to pounce and slash at its opponent and use its beak to repeatedly strike at the head as no part of the animal is skinny as even the neck is thick with chorded muscles and very hard to bite and rip off unless the animal attacking it is a large theropod such as a adult V Rex. Thus when it is cornered the brutornis like its name is a very vicious bird that has to be to survive on skull island.

For its feathers due to living in a mostly tropical environment it has overall developed a short coat that only covers everything between the tops of the thighs to the beginning of the neck with the feathers colored dependant on the environment they were in with brutornis that lived in open grassland developing lighter coloration while those that lived in open scrubland forest developing darker shades to help them blend in better. visually the feathering seems to be similar to that of emus and cassowaries albeit much more lighter due to the more energy expensive lifestyle of hunting the brutornis engages in. The only other patch of feathers on its body is a series of quills along the top of the head which is primarily used for display and identification amongst the species with more colorful quills and plumes being males while less vibrant and more modest colors are females.

The most peculiar feathers being on the actual wings of brutornis are the most odd. Were it not for the odd additions it had it would overall be fairly consistent to what most beliefs exist on how terror bird wings looked. Along the edges of the wings jutting out from them are 3 long and razor sharp spines along the trims of its feathers which were originally believed to be feathers that through a quirk of the anomalous energies of skull island had evolved to become sharpened and protude from the wings with them being around the length of a human head. Anatomically speaking from what dissection would reveal later on that the sharp spines were actually unique derived extensions of the terror birds pollex bone (which in other animals would be akin to where the thumb bone is in humans) which had somehow evolved to be three distinct bones that extend out of the wing but are able to be hidden into the feathers to conceal them for their true purpose.

The purpose of the spines are to aid the brutornis in hunting as on skull island most of the animals which are hunted by the myriad of carnivores overall have a propensity to develop very keen senses along with slightly higher intelligence which is something terror birds have no experience with as most off the animals that they originally hunted only had average senses in comparison to the fauna of skull island as well as being much more bigger on average compared to the horse sized mammals they hunted. In turn the terror birds in response would change their tactic when they began to hunt the animals of skull island as while their beaks were still effective the dinosaurs they now hunted were much more harder to bring down due to their size alone which prompted their new quirk that being their wing spines. When the brutornis is chasing down a large animal, specifically a ligocristus that is big enough for it, in its pursuit when it is by the head it will peck its head down to make the animal duck which it then used to spread out its wings and use the feather spines to stab the animal with the target in around eighty five percent of observed and recorded hunts usually being the eyes to blind the animal so as to be able to peck viciously at its head with the animal being helpless as it can't see with the other percentage being using the spikes to stab into the neck at blood vessels and arteries but this is normally in cases where the animal is fairly weak and sluggish and more high risk in larger and healthier creatures.

In the natural world the trait used by brutornis is practically exclusive to skull island as normally in birds as a whole the pollex bone is usually a vestigial feature, a remnant from their dinosaurian ancestors that was left behind when they fully embraced flight where it normally is a anchor point for muscles in the wings of avian bird. In non avian birds the pontex is still vestigial with it being lucky if its even noticeable in the skeleton but on skull island the brutornis as well as almost all other terror bird species seem to have undergone a shift where in response to the more alert and stronger prey the pontex would slowly evolved to the point it split off into 3 separate spines that are able to be retracted in and out of the terror birds wings at the flexing of its wings with it mainly being used while hunting to help blind large prey before finishing it off with a slamming peck from its powerful beak. Initially it was thought the ability was exclusive to just brutornis but over time it was later found that near every large terror bird species and just about EVERY flightless ground dwelling bird on skull island appears to have all convergently evolved these wing spikes with predatory species using them to blind prey while non predatory ones use them mainly for defense against attackers or to ward them off by extending them out.

Regardless the feather spikes are a crucial component of brutornis and the other terror birds on skull island as they are the most important hidden aspect that has contributed to their success on skull island as without them its highly unlikely they would have been able to get to the point they are at now. When not hunting the feather spikes are also used by brutornis as well as the myriad of other terror bird species on skull island for a number of uses with the other main usage being communication in the species where they will manipulate their spikes with rapid shaking of them being considered as a show of aggression or as a warning while slow and deliberate sways of them are seen both in submission as well as expressing a desire to mate. Other than that the feather spikes are also used by the brutornis to also mark trees as well as stab into them to pull out any animals such as insects, rodents, small birds, snakes or lizars hiding inside of trees for a small snack when their is a current lack of large game in the area a brutornis is in all of it thanks to brutornis possessing a very enhanced cognitive status.

In terms of overall intelligence what exaclty the mental capabilites of terror birds were in the cenozoic is so far unknown though based off the predatory life style it is still regarded as having been believed to be intelligent enough to be able to hunt down prey in a lifestyle that required advanced precision and timing but on skull island if there is ONE thing its animals do not fall under its low intelligence as even the peaceful herbivores such as brontosaurus and ligocristus are very perceptive and quick witted to the many dangers on skull island which in turn influenced brutornis and the other terror birds on the land mass to develop more cognitively advanced behaviors. The first being that the terror birds are overall much more social animals than what they were originally thought to be speculated by paleontologists as there overall seems to be a reduced amount of interspecies competition due to the presence of so many larger carnivores making it more of a drawback in the long run.

When a brutornis encounters another brutornis regardless of what gender they are they typically do not engage in any aggressive behavior with one another unless resources are limited in a area such as food. Normally when two brutornis encounter one another they will make calm and gentle clicking and calling noises to one another to identify themselves before the other done in a fashion that visually is similar to the behavior seen in emus when they greet one another in the wild of Australia. What follows next can vary depending on many different circumstances but usually what has been observed is that the two brutornis will actually exchange basic information about their territories which they hunt in from what prey they have to predators that they deal with doing so both with low squawks and flexing and moving their wings to convey to one another in a surprisingly civil manner that expresses no intent for a fight.

In the event that resources are limited and there is low supplies of food when two brutornis meet will be much more tense but due to how their fight or possible death could attract more larger and dangerous predators two competeting brutornis will instead stomp their taloned feet on the ground and flex their wings with no actual violence occuring as both birds know that even a small amount of spilled blood can attract much more dangerous predators with the victor being the one who can out squawk the other where the loser will back away and bow their head in submission before walking away with no violence being recorded amongst the species so far by the foundation and our field explorers on skull island.

Socially most brutornis and terror birds on skull island are solitary animals with the exception being during the mating season. In the mating season multiple males will have the quills and feathers on their head brighten with color to attract females while using their feet to scratch and claw the ground to further entice them with it normally ending with a male acquiring a female and mate for life in normal cases but in cases where the environment is more productive and bountiful in prey it also has been seen some terror bird males will have multpile females in a manner similar to ostriches in africa with low numbers being 10 in total consisting of the male and main female to more excessive cases of near 100 terror birds in total. The reason for high numbers is believed to be in that more productive habitats with larger animals terror bird males will not only mate with multiple females but also acquire them to bring down more larger prey so that they do not deplete the habitat they are in of more smaller game to ensure ecological stability.

But when a mob of terror birds does come to be its a very dangerous force to be reckoned with as while they may not bare the intelligence of the venatosaurus they make up for it in sheer relentless aggression that can allow them to mob and attack larger game inclduing ligocristus, ferrucutus and in some cases juvenile brontosaurus lost from their heard or medium sized vastatosauruses due to their numbers being able to overwhelm and end their lives in a savage wave of feathers and sharp talons and beaks. As of the foundations presence on skull island through our recorded observations its believed that with a healthy mob of a hundre brutornis it is believed that they have the potential to bring down the likes of a full grown V rex or even a kong and there do exist stories by the skull island people of such rare cases having happened in the past but as of the present no such event has ever been seen or documented throughout the foundations presence upon skull island.

However these scenarios are almost entirely limited to areas that can sustain such large numbers of them so in normal cases most terror birds will only have their mate which brings us to their means of raising their offspring. Since the brutornis lives in a open area with little cover their nests have to be made on the ground which are similar in structure to that of cassowaries where the female and male will take turns roosting and gaurding their nest with their higher intelligence having helped so that they will actually make multiple decoy nests which are then urinated on by the birds which can alert them if they are disturbed to allow the guarding male and female to slowly sneak up and kill the egg thief and return to their partner at the real nest with food for them as the respective partner will go months without food to protect their eggs and the other will ensure they are fed throughout it to keep their strength and swap with them so as to keep them both on alert by swapping places every so often with only ONE other animal that is able to see through the ploy that being the gorgonopsid Lycaeasaurus.

While the Lycaeasaurus are covered in another file they overall are one of the main animals that will actively target brutornis nests as they also live in mated pairs and will actually work together to try to get the eggs where either the male or female will get the attention of the walking brutornis and actually fight and brawl it to attempt to get the other one away from the nest while the other sneaks up to the nest and grab the eggs. However this is a very risky strategy as brutornis mothers and fathers will normally not eat anything save for small scavengers their mated other brings to them and a full grown lycaeasaurus is a delicous treat able to satiate their hunger with success rates depending entirely on how well the first Lycaeasaurus manages to wound and hurt the brutornis enough to get the other involved which is very hard as the brutornis is just as smart as the gorgonopsid and will attempt to use its beak to peck viciously at it with the overall success rate of lycaeasaurus raids being almost fifty percent with brutornis infant mortality rates being higher than brutornis with multpile females that make a similar such raid suicidal for the derived synapsid.

If no incidents occur a nest of brutornis can range from one to six eggs in total each one being around the size of a basket ball with brutornis chicks at their births weighing as much as fifteen to twenty pounds (6.8 to 9 kilograms) and are able to walk and follow their parents in around 2 hours or so after they hatch where they will follow their parents who will raise them in secluded areas at first with small animals like insects and lizards before they will be gradually instructed and taught how to communicate with others of their species by imitating what their parents do until they are able to chase and hunt larger game and eventually leave their parents to form their own territories at one year of age though there do exist cases of young brutornis sticking and hunting with their parents in certain situations such as being in more dangerous areas with larger predators with habitats with larger mobs of terror birds having more extensive family members all living together and aiding to take down larger game.

The Brutornis was offically discovered by the foundation in 1933 during the first expedtion to the island with the crew of the ship "the venture" and as such is one of the more well studied animals in our records. The first encounter by the crew of the venture would come when the crew were navigating through a open forest where they were taking a rest with the crews sole female member with them at the time anne darrow, a foundation botanist that would actually inspire the female titular character of the same name, studying some nearby plants and was unknowingly being watched and stalked by a lone brutornis and was actually hunting her but had been noticed by the venture member alek semenov or "Lumpy" as he was known by everyone of the venture crew who had silently not made any sound and had managed to pull out his machine gun and opened fire at the hidden terror bird killing it and causing it to fall down in front of everyone taking them all by surprise at the sight of it.

For background context Alek semenov was the cook for the venture crew who was originally a former cook for the russian army that served on the eastern front during the first world war who was renowned for making meals out of literally nothing due to his very resourceful nature that was a necessary requirement for surviving the brutal conditions that many russian and german soldiers faced in the conflict in the east. Ultimately he would desert the army in the wake of the russian revolution where he would flee initially to neutral sweden where he would meet his friend till the end of his days Cho-yun Hai or "Choy" as he refered to himself who had himself fled china in the wake of the Qing Dynasty's collapse in the midst of world war one and had taken to being a merchant sailor who would wind up bringing his family to new york city into its china town district and had coincedentally had the ship he was on head to sweden where he would meet and instantly befriend alek and him to do the same do to their similar backstories of having to scrape by to survive where he would get his name lumpy from choy due to choy remarking on his lumpy personality which alek would adopt himself and would move to america to new york city where the two would also become friends with former harlem hellfighter benjamin hayes and would be recruited as crew members for the foundation expedition to skull island in 1933 where they unlike their versions in the movies they all survived the expedition to skull island but never went on future expeditions due the many experiences that for alek caused him to suffer from ptsd which he may have possibly acquired from his days fighting in world war one which he never told anyone about. Regardless Choy and lumpy would overall be the main cooks for the 1933 expedition do to their resourceful natures allowing them to figure out what was edible on skull island and what was poisonous and are directly credited for being the first foundation personnel that learned what food was safe for human consumption on skull island via using captured small omnivourous dinosaurs as makeshift test rats.

following the first expedition to skull island he and choy would physically not return to skull island but would serve for many years as the main food experts using mice and other animals to make them eat any acquired food future skull island expeditions would acquire right up until the halt of the 1939 expedition when the second world war broke out. During the conflict they would be merchant marines helping to ship ration and food supplies to allied forces where they primarily served in the pacific theater where the two did high risk supply drop offs to chinese resistant forces in mainland china who were fighting the japanese under the cover of darkness until the war ended following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war they would retire and live out their days in new york city with benjamin hayes but would write frequent letters to other people of the 1933 expedition right up until their deaths where they each died peacefully in their sleep with lumpy passing in 1951 and choy in 1953 respectively with their families still alive today and are foundation confidants in new york city in the china town district.

Back onto the topic brutornis over the years would become one of the more frequently studied animals on skull island and as such more information is known about it due to the more longer time it has been known to us that with interviews with the peoples of skull island we now know where it stands. Through our understanding the brutornis due to its propensity to eating on anything smaller than itself is now widely regarded as being one of the most dangerous animals on skull island that will actively and regularly hunt humans as normally a good majority of human settlements on skull islands plains are away from predators such as v rex, skull crawlers, venatosaurs and gorophaganaxes do their being little cover for them to sneak up on them and the fact that the people will occasionally light on fire to ensure they have a clear cover however the terror birds due to coming from cenozoic south america are very much used to fires on savannahs and are undeterred and have across skull island from both in its anceint past with the first skull island civilization to the present day always been seen as a scourge to humans due to how aggressive they are and across the island exists multiple accounts and horror stories of mobs of terror birds terrorizing and attacking villages with the more disturbing accounts of how the terror birds will attack at night and steal away unguarded children and infants away from their parents which has across skull island resulted in every settlement with rooms that house babies or young children to be ENTIRELY without any windows and made of the most strongest materials with only ONE door so as to ensure if a predator got inside they would locked in and be forced to face a squad of people armed with weapons inside who had laid a trap to kill it.

Because of their reputation as child stealers it overall means that if any terror birds are sighted usually the first thing to be done is to ensure the children are put into a safe area at ALL times until it has either moved on or has been killed by hunters from the village. Even in the past when the skull island civilization ruled they were still seen as violent pests with their existing of stories of terror birds actually being used as mounts to subjugate the island in military conquests though even amongst the people of skull island that is normally heavily doubted given how aggressive in temperamant brutornis is to anything that isn't a member of its own kind to the point that full scale domestication is deemed totally impossible as attempts during the 1960s by the foundation via acquired eggs would prove so as when they were raised by human handlers the moment that humans stopped tending to them their natural instincts would reawaken and hunt them and thus it was deemed to unsuited for human use and has never been tried since both to ensure they remain in their natural habitat and to avoid any unnecessary loss of life.

Normally because of how fast they are they are able to outrun just about any human as well as any mount so the main method that skull island humans use to dispose of them is by sneaking up on them or luring them into traps and using ranged weapons from a distance meaning fire arms are the most effective ways to put down a terror bird with it being heavily recommended it be done from as far a distance as possible as they are able to kill a human very quickly with a swift hack of their beak that can break a skull with ease. Thus when terror birds are observed by foundation field explorers its always enforced that it be done with either drones or in heavily armored trucks and reinforced vans and NEVER on foot in the open nearby to them as they are much faster that they cannot be outran and are able to easily overpower the most physically adept of field agents.

Culturally the brutornis as well as most of the other terror birds on skull island in the mythology of skull island are said to be the many descandants of avos who was the skull island god that was the progenitor for every bird to exist on skull island both flightless and flying where while it varies by region the general idea was that the terror birds were swayed by the evil skull island gaw and had their minds corrupted but were unable to fulfill the desires of the evil entity and were abandoned and left to spread across skull island without anything to stop them to the point the modern brutornis came to be with documented accounts from near every major skull island settlement that dwells in the plains and grasslands all having their own unique takes and spins on the origins of brutornis and every other phorusrhacid that dwells on skull island.

In conclusion no matter how it is perceived the brutornis should be regarded by all foundation field agents who are interested in being assigned to skull island that on this landmass lost to time that the dinosaurs are the LEAST of the worries one should have and that the unexpected is what will be the cause of your demise should you not focus on learning and preparing to deal with so many dangerous creatures to ever exist in nature.

HELLO EVERYONE! theperson7 here bringing you another skull island profile this time on skull island's largest terror bird the brutornis. Now this deviation was a first for me as this is the very first proper bird i have made om deviantart and I feel like I did pretty decent as the overall original look of brutornis had very simple feathers which were easy for me to work with. Now in the original image of brutornis particularly the one where it is facing to the viewer it has these strange spike like claws in its wings with no elaboration as to what they are or what they did which left me able to apply my own interpretation as to what they were and thus the feather spines came to be. The next major change I added was to make the brutornis more social and more tolerant of its own species as to me I was fascinated by what the terror birds in real life tried to be that being the successors of theropod dinosaurs in a sense and I decided I would add some uncanny valley elements by making them attack in mobs a thing as the notion of 10 to 12 foot tall murder birds chasing after you sounds to me more scary than facing a T rex as they are big enough to where your considered prey to them whereas a T rex would see you realistically in the vain of how we see mice. Another reason being that while terror birds were pretty deadly on their own making them be able to cooperate with one another to bring down larger prey would help them better survive on skull island which has much more deadly animals compared to their original environment in cenozoic south america so by throwing in the possibility they could overpower a v rex or kong was a perfect way to highlight how even on skull island not even the top animals are always safe in certain circumstances. So with that I hope everyone is having a lovely day and be sure to leave a comment on what you think and what you want to see next and a fav as well so have a nice day.

Description
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FILE: BRUTORNIS GRAVIS

Name meaning in Latin: HEAVY BRUTAL BIRD

TAXONOMY
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Superorder: Australaves
Order: Cariamiformes
Suborder: Phorusrhacoidea
Family: Phorusrhacidae
Subfamily: Phorusrhacinae
Genus: Brutornis
Species: Brutornis Gravis

Length: On average 6 to 7 feet long from the tip of their beak to the ends of their tails feathers (1.8 to 2.1 meters in length)
Height: On average 6 to 7 feet tall at the hip 12 to 14 feet tall at the top of the skull (1.8 to 2.1 meters at the hip while 3.6 to 4.2 meters in total)
Weight: On average 1500 to 3000 pounds ( 680 to 1360 kilograms in weight)
Ecological Niche: Cursorial pursuit predator of the grasslands, prairies and open savannahs and sparsely open forests of skull island
Danger Level: HIGH Mainly due to the fact it hunts just about anything it can physically size up to with humans included but become more dangerous if a mob of Brutornis is nearby or if it perceives one as a threat to their chicks
Life expectancy: 60 to 80 years
Sexual Maturity: 5 to 10 years for both sexes

“ When it comes to skull island there are many sorts of animals here that are able to truly encapsulate the sheer uncanny valley level on the human psyche. While the dinosaurs here may have their own form of effect they are only a FRACTION of the animals that truly shows you just what kind of a savage and other worldly place skull island is, ESPECIALLY the prehistoric animals that most people don’t really know about or see that much in media. Brutornis is one such case as this thing is what true fear is like for those who happen to get stranded on that godforsaken island where your death doesn’t come from a V Rex or venatosaur but by a twelve to fourteen foot tall flightless bird that has a hatchet like beak that can break the skull of a horse and lion and then look down upon you with large and beady eyes as it’s next meal. - Zachary Reynolds Foundation paleo ornithologist upon the Brutornis 2006”

" Bloody hell....it looks like a turkey if it was made by the devil himself to be a brutal killing machine" Alek 'Lumpy' Semenov chef and member for the first foundation expedition to skull island in 1933 that shot and killed the first specimen to be examined by the foundation "

Following the wake of the extinction of the non avian dinosaurs outside of skull island the remaining archosaurs, the crocodilians and the last remaining dinosaurs the birds, would have to adapt to living in a world ruled by mammals that had arisen from the ashes of the extinct dinosaurs. However throughout the Cenozoic at least until just roughly 2 to 1.5 million years ago there was one landmass that wasn’t ruled by mammals but instead by the last remaining dinosaurs the birds. This continent is what is now modern day South America where before it’s position where it is today it was once joined with Africa for all of the Paleozoic and two thirds of the Mesozoic until 110 million years ago.

Even when the asteroid that concluded the age of the dinosaurs struck the earth South America had become totally isolated from the rest of the planet. Despite the loss of south americas dinosaurs it was able to actually bounce back and even prosper regardless of its geographical position being close to the site of the chicxulub impact crater that signified the end of the Mesozoic. Here the continent would bear witness to expansive regions of neotropical rainforest that would be a place for life to teem particularly reptiles and birds. And while South America would develop its own mammals the reality was they were only denizens not masters rather that title would go to the Phorusrhacids or as they are more aptly known….THE TERROR BIRDS.

Roughly appearing in the fossil record about 10 million years or so after the extinction of the non avian dinosaurs terror birds are part of a group of birds known as cariamas which still exist today in South America which are close relatives of modern falcons, parrots and songbirds with the sole surviving members being the red and black legged seriamas with the red legged species being the most widespread of the two having a geographic range that covers Brazil, paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and a tiny sliver or Bolivia. In the present the seriema is south America’s ecological equivalent to the African secretary bird where while they possess the ability to fly they spend most of their time on the ground to hunt prey with flight not being seen as important for their hunting of insects, snakes, lizards, frogs, young birds, and rodents.

In the Cenozoic however the family that seriemas is apart of was much more diverse and widespread and more importantly had much bigger relatives in the form of the terror birds. If one was to simplify the basic premise of the phorusrhacids as a whole then they are in essence a avian attempt to fill in the void left by the absence of large theropod dinosaurs that worked surprisingly well for most of the cenozoic until around roughly 100,000 years. During their time they occupied a wide array of predatory niches that allowed them to hunt just about within reason save for certain exceptions with them ranging from smaller 3 foot tall forms to massive 10 foot tall goliaths that actually directly competed with south americas native mammal predators and are now known to have hunted unique endemic ungulates that would have grown to the size of modern horses.

In life terror birds were mainly bipedal and had become flightless yet powerful pursuit hunters with estimated speeds by paleontologists believed to be at 30 miles an hour or 48 kilometers per second meaning if they weren’t restricted to skull island they would be fast enough to hunt and chase down wild cattle and feral horses where their main means of killing being a large and powerful beak that would have been very sharp and functioned in a manner like a hatchet or axe courtesy of a strong and flexible neck in which the animal would use its head to viciously peck and hack at either the neck or back of the head of a fleeing animal where the goal was to make the animal trip and tumble and fall over due to the successive amount of cranial trauma before it would use its powerful clawed feet to either pin down or slash at the exposed underside of animals with the beak also being used in conjunction with the claws to tear open major arteries or the neck to allow blood loss and shock to finish off its prey before it would begin to eat.

What made them so successful was that like theropod dinosaurs before them the terror birds had a very special respiratory system that allowed them to keep themselves steady on the move which allowed the genus to all be powerful and very agile runners that until the connection of south america to north america by the isthamus of panama 2.7 million years they ruled the open savannahs and plains of cenozoic south america totally uncontested and forced every other mammalian predator on the continent to be specialized forest dwelling hunters as through recent understandings and discoveries it is hypothesized that terror birds to some extant may have been social animals which may have meant mobs of terror birds could have been possible in cenozoic south america that would have overwhelmed any mammalian carnivore living during the height of their reign which was perhaps a contributer to why they ruled so well as current evidence shows that when savanna ecosystems spread across south america the population of terror birds bloomed as a result.

In fact the phorusrhacids were one of a select number of south american animals that actually spread into ice age north america during the great american interchange with fossils of their group found as far north as the southern United States of America with the most largest one in the fossil record being Titanis which stood at a full height of ten feet tall and even directly competed with the predators there such as the saber toothed cats or dire wolfs that it now encountered in ice age north america due to it being a pursuit based predator of large game. However the reality of the interchange was a double edged sword for the terror birds as while the larger species that hunted big game prospered the more smaller ones were outcompeted by arriving fauna from north america meaning all that remained were the modern seriamas who were able to withstand the faunal displacements.

As for the larger species of terror birds how exactly they went extinct is still currently unknown as humanities impact that led to the extinction of many cenozoic animals at the end of the last ice age is still being uncovered and learned as speak. However unlike other ice age animals such as the mammoths or saber toothed cats when exactly they went extinct is still intensely debated due to fossils of different relatives of the group being found over varying ranges of time that, as it stands currently in the year 2023, anywhere between one and a half and one hundred thousand years ago is when they went extinct. What is known however was that humanity ( at least what we know of) had no actual direct role into their extinction as there no fossils or remains of any ancient human groups coming into contact with the terror birds meaning they more than likely happened to have been gone before humans arrived into the americas or at the least been isolated into small populations that they had faded away into extinction where the current standing was that as climate change led to loss in large prey many carnivores such saber tooths and dire wolves died out due to their lifestyles of hunting large game being unable to cope with the changes with the terror birds meeting a similar fate albeit unlike them they still have small relatives in south america today....that was until the foundation discovered skull island where it turns out terror birds still roam.

When Exactly the phorusrhacids as a group arrived onto skull island is still unknown as the islands fossil record is still incomplete and being dug up as we speak but through our efforts we have managed to piece together a basic idea of their history on skull island. Based off current finds it is believed the phorusrhacids arrived onto skull island around 50 million years ago but it would seem that due to the constant anomalous geologic movements of skull island all across the planet the island circled about around south america at different points in time as fossils have been found of different species of terror bird that existed in different parts of cenozoic south america which has now led to their arrival onto the island was less of one singular origin but rather multiple sporadic influx events over the course of millions of years where different populations arrived and had to adapt to the myriad of conditions on the island until eventually the modern skull island terror birds would arise from different species hybridizng over many generations with the latest terror birds being of titanis which was believed to have been hybrized into other populations onto the island which helped to allow for the existence of the animal of this file...the BRUTORNIS GRAVIS or the heavy brutal bird

representing the pinnacle of the phorusrhacids both in the fossil record and on skull island the brutornis takes the title of being the largest carnivorous flightless bird to have ever evolved with specimens ranging in height to 12 to 14 feet tall placing them at a few feet lower than that of a giraffe with their heavy part of the name coming from the fact they can weigh on average a ton in weight with them capable of reaching a ton and a half depending on certain conditions. From what is understood the brutornis, like many other animals on skull island, is the result of many species of terror bird hybridizing over millions of years due to the excessive amount of dangerous conditions warranting such with the brutornis being derived from terror bird species that were overall very muscular and bore powerful and strong builds with recent genetic analysis indicating they recently hybridized with the american titanis species around three to two million years ago.

Now to understand how brutornis is the way they are we need to understand how terror birds as a whole had to adapt on skull island. Unlike their original habitat in south america where the only other predators were forest dwelling mammal marsupials that filled the role of large big cats skull island is home to many species of large theropod dinosaur which the terror birds convergently evolved to be in the manner of which practically out weighed anything they had to deal with by a factor of 20. Therefore the terror birds could not afford to be as how they were given the size of the animals they now had to deal with on skull island as well as the fact they also had to deal with more intelligent hunters such as the venatosaurs which were more intelligent than anything they ever faced that are smart enough to use packs to bring them down.

Thus the terror birds niche partitioned and would become part of a trophic level which the foundation has dubbed "vassal hunters" being animals on skull island that exceed the size of big cats but fall under medium to large sized theropods like the V rex and gorophaganax. The brutornis is the most common and widespread of the group as they overall opted for a more powerful build where they are comfortable hunting in tall grasslands, prairies and open forests where they often times but not always avoid competition with the venatosaurs and V rexes as those tend to focus on dense labyrinthine jungle and open areas next to forest respectively where the terror birds dont really utilize cover as much though fights with young V rexes on their own or lost and isolated venatosaurs are known to take place and one on one the brutornis is actually able to successfully kill either two most of the time in a direct one on one confrontation depending on the circumstances but if faced with a full pack of venatosaurs or a full grown v rex is where the fortunes change to where the brutornis loses.

As for their prey due to their size they will hunt just about anything within reason to their size in the their local area from small game such as skull island rabbits and small dicynodonts to large animals such as ligocristus and ligocristus young who got lost and isolated from their herd to find themselves at the receiving end of their powerful and sharp beak. Their beak over millions of years of evolution and continued exposure to the unique anomalous energies of skull island has overall become very strong allowing them to peck and stab through even bone and armor that can withstand high amounts of stress and pressure meaning they can actually use their beaks to peck and break wood and stone to help them bring down prey hiding in trees and rocky structures and use gravity to help bring it down to get them.

Onto the rest of the body the brutornis as a whole has overall developed a very muscular build that allows it to be able to more than grapple and brawl with animals in its size range such as equally sized theropod dinosaurs, Skull island Big cats, giant insects, synapsids, land dwelling crocodilians, giant snakes, giant centipedes and othe animals of equal mass to it as not only is it massive its also uncannily fast and reactive for its size where it can use its sharp claws to pounce and slash at its opponent and use its beak to repeatedly strike at the head as no part of the animal is skinny as even the neck is thick with chorded muscles and very hard to bite and rip off unless the animal attacking it is a large theropod such as a adult V Rex. Thus when it is cornered the brutornis like its name is a very vicious bird that has to be to survive on skull island.

For its feathers due to living in a mostly tropical environment it has overall developed a short coat that only covers everything between the tops of the thighs to the beginning of the neck with the feathers colored dependant on the environment they were in with brutornis that lived in open grassland developing lighter coloration while those that lived in open scrubland forest developing darker shades to help them blend in better. visually the feathering seems to be similar to that of emus and cassowaries albeit much more lighter due to the more energy expensive lifestyle of hunting the brutornis engages in. The only other patch of feathers on its body is a series of quills along the top of the head which is primarily used for display and identification amongst the species with more colorful quills and plumes being males while less vibrant and more modest colors are females.

The most peculiar feathers being on the actual wings of brutornis are the most odd. Were it not for the odd additions it had it would overall be fairly consistent to what most beliefs exist on how terror bird wings looked. Along the edges of the wings jutting out from them are 3 long and razor sharp spines along the trims of its feathers which were originally believed to be feathers that through a quirk of the anomalous energies of skull island had evolved to become sharpened and protude from the wings with them being around the length of a human head. Anatomically speaking from what dissection would reveal later on that the sharp spines were actually unique derived extensions of the terror birds pollex bone (which in other animals would be akin to where the thumb bone is in humans) which had somehow evolved to be three distinct bones that extend out of the wing but are able to be hidden into the feathers to conceal them for their true purpose.

The purpose of the spines are to aid the brutornis in hunting as on skull island most of the animals which are hunted by the myriad of carnivores overall have a propensity to develop very keen senses along with slightly higher intelligence which is something terror birds have no experience with as most off the animals that they originally hunted only had average senses in comparison to the fauna of skull island as well as being much more bigger on average compared to the horse sized mammals they hunted. In turn the terror birds in response would change their tactic when they began to hunt the animals of skull island as while their beaks were still effective the dinosaurs they now hunted were much more harder to bring down due to their size alone which prompted their new quirk that being their wing spines. When the brutornis is chasing down a large animal, specifically a ligocristus that is big enough for it, in its pursuit when it is by the head it will peck its head down to make the animal duck which it then used to spread out its wings and use the feather spines to stab the animal with the target in around eighty five percent of observed and recorded hunts usually being the eyes to blind the animal so as to be able to peck viciously at its head with the animal being helpless as it can't see with the other percentage being using the spikes to stab into the neck at blood vessels and arteries but this is normally in cases where the animal is fairly weak and sluggish and more high risk in larger and healthier creatures.

In the natural world the trait used by brutornis is practically exclusive to skull island as normally in birds as a whole the pollex bone is usually a vestigial feature, a remnant from their dinosaurian ancestors that was left behind when they fully embraced flight where it normally is a anchor point for muscles in the wings of avian bird. In non avian birds the pontex is still vestigial with it being lucky if its even noticeable in the skeleton but on skull island the brutornis as well as almost all other terror bird species seem to have undergone a shift where in response to the more alert and stronger prey the pontex would slowly evolved to the point it split off into 3 separate spines that are able to be retracted in and out of the terror birds wings at the flexing of its wings with it mainly being used while hunting to help blind large prey before finishing it off with a slamming peck from its powerful beak. Initially it was thought the ability was exclusive to just brutornis but over time it was later found that near every large terror bird species and just about EVERY flightless ground dwelling bird on skull island appears to have all convergently evolved these wing spikes with predatory species using them to blind prey while non predatory ones use them mainly for defense against attackers or to ward them off by extending them out.

Regardless the feather spikes are a crucial component of brutornis and the other terror birds on skull island as they are the most important hidden aspect that has contributed to their success on skull island as without them its highly unlikely they would have been able to get to the point they are at now. When not hunting the feather spikes are also used by brutornis as well as the myriad of other terror bird species on skull island for a number of uses with the other main usage being communication in the species where they will manipulate their spikes with rapid shaking of them being considered as a show of aggression or as a warning while slow and deliberate sways of them are seen both in submission as well as expressing a desire to mate. Other than that the feather spikes are also used by the brutornis to also mark trees as well as stab into them to pull out any animals such as insects, rodents, small birds, snakes or lizars hiding inside of trees for a small snack when their is a current lack of large game in the area a brutornis is in all of it thanks to brutornis possessing a very enhanced cognitive status.

In terms of overall intelligence what exaclty the mental capabilites of terror birds were in the cenozoic is so far unknown though based off the predatory life style it is still regarded as having been believed to be intelligent enough to be able to hunt down prey in a lifestyle that required advanced precision and timing but on skull island if there is ONE thing its animals do not fall under its low intelligence as even the peaceful herbivores such as brontosaurus and ligocristus are very perceptive and quick witted to the many dangers on skull island which in turn influenced brutornis and the other terror birds on the land mass to develop more cognitively advanced behaviors. The first being that the terror birds are overall much more social animals than what they were originally thought to be speculated by paleontologists as there overall seems to be a reduced amount of interspecies competition due to the presence of so many larger carnivores making it more of a drawback in the long run.

When a brutornis encounters another brutornis regardless of what gender they are they typically do not engage in any aggressive behavior with one another unless resources are limited in a area such as food. Normally when two brutornis encounter one another they will make calm and gentle clicking and calling noises to one another to identify themselves before the other done in a fashion that visually is similar to the behavior seen in emus when they greet one another in the wild of Australia. What follows next can vary depending on many different circumstances but usually what has been observed is that the two brutornis will actually exchange basic information about their territories which they hunt in from what prey they have to predators that they deal with doing so both with low squawks and flexing and moving their wings to convey to one another in a surprisingly civil manner that expresses no intent for a fight.

In the event that resources are limited and there is low supplies of food when two brutornis meet will be much more tense but due to how their fight or possible death could attract more larger and dangerous predators two competeting brutornis will instead stomp their taloned feet on the ground and flex their wings with no actual violence occuring as both birds know that even a small amount of spilled blood can attract much more dangerous predators with the victor being the one who can out squawk the other where the loser will back away and bow their head in submission before walking away with no violence being recorded amongst the species so far by the foundation and our field explorers on skull island.

Socially most brutornis and terror birds on skull island are solitary animals with the exception being during the mating season. In the mating season multiple males will have the quills and feathers on their head brighten with color to attract females while using their feet to scratch and claw the ground to further entice them with it normally ending with a male acquiring a female and mate for life in normal cases but in cases where the environment is more productive and bountiful in prey it also has been seen some terror bird males will have multpile females in a manner similar to ostriches in africa with low numbers being 10 in total consisting of the male and main female to more excessive cases of near 100 terror birds in total. The reason for high numbers is believed to be in that more productive habitats with larger animals terror bird males will not only mate with multiple females but also acquire them to bring down more larger prey so that they do not deplete the habitat they are in of more smaller game to ensure ecological stability.

But when a mob of terror birds does come to be its a very dangerous force to be reckoned with as while they may not bare the intelligence of the venatosaurus they make up for it in sheer relentless aggression that can allow them to mob and attack larger game inclduing ligocristus, ferrucutus and in some cases juvenile brontosaurus lost from their heard or medium sized vastatosauruses due to their numbers being able to overwhelm and end their lives in a savage wave of feathers and sharp talons and beaks. As of the foundations presence on skull island through our recorded observations its believed that with a healthy mob of a hundre brutornis it is believed that they have the potential to bring down the likes of a full grown V rex or even a kong and there do exist stories by the skull island people of such rare cases having happened in the past but as of the present no such event has ever been seen or documented throughout the foundations presence upon skull island.

However these scenarios are almost entirely limited to areas that can sustain such large numbers of them so in normal cases most terror birds will only have their mate which brings us to their means of raising their offspring. Since the brutornis lives in a open area with little cover their nests have to be made on the ground which are similar in structure to that of cassowaries where the female and male will take turns roosting and gaurding their nest with their higher intelligence having helped so that they will actually make multiple decoy nests which are then urinated on by the birds which can alert them if they are disturbed to allow the guarding male and female to slowly sneak up and kill the egg thief and return to their partner at the real nest with food for them as the respective partner will go months without food to protect their eggs and the other will ensure they are fed throughout it to keep their strength and swap with them so as to keep them both on alert by swapping places every so often with only ONE other animal that is able to see through the ploy that being the gorgonopsid Lycaeasaurus.

While the Lycaeasaurus are covered in another file they overall are one of the main animals that will actively target brutornis nests as they also live in mated pairs and will actually work together to try to get the eggs where either the male or female will get the attention of the walking brutornis and actually fight and brawl it to attempt to get the other one away from the nest while the other sneaks up to the nest and grab the eggs. However this is a very risky strategy as brutornis mothers and fathers will normally not eat anything save for small scavengers their mated other brings to them and a full grown lycaeasaurus is a delicous treat able to satiate their hunger with success rates depending entirely on how well the first Lycaeasaurus manages to wound and hurt the brutornis enough to get the other involved which is very hard as the brutornis is just as smart as the gorgonopsid and will attempt to use its beak to peck viciously at it with the overall success rate of lycaeasaurus raids being almost fifty percent with brutornis infant mortality rates being higher than brutornis with multpile females that make a similar such raid suicidal for the derived synapsid.

If no incidents occur a nest of brutornis can range from one to six eggs in total each one being around the size of a basket ball with brutornis chicks at their births weighing as much as fifteen to twenty pounds (6.8 to 9 kilograms) and are able to walk and follow their parents in around 2 hours or so after they hatch where they will follow their parents who will raise them in secluded areas at first with small animals like insects and lizards before they will be gradually instructed and taught how to communicate with others of their species by imitating what their parents do until they are able to chase and hunt larger game and eventually leave their parents to form their own territories at one year of age though there do exist cases of young brutornis sticking and hunting with their parents in certain situations such as being in more dangerous areas with larger predators with habitats with larger mobs of terror birds having more extensive family members all living together and aiding to take down larger game.

The Brutornis was offically discovered by the foundation in 1933 during the first expedtion to the island with the crew of the ship "the venture" and as such is one of the more well studied animals in our records. The first encounter by the crew of the venture would come when the crew were navigating through a open forest where they were taking a rest with the crews sole female member with them at the time anne darrow, a foundation botanist that would actually inspire the female titular character of the same name, studying some nearby plants and was unknowingly being watched and stalked by a lone brutornis and was actually hunting her but had been noticed by the venture member alek semenov or "Lumpy" as he was known by everyone of the venture crew who had silently not made any sound and had managed to pull out his machine gun and opened fire at the hidden terror bird killing it and causing it to fall down in front of everyone taking them all by surprise at the sight of it.

For background context Alek semenov was the cook for the venture crew who was originally a former cook for the russian army that served on the eastern front during the first world war who was renowned for making meals out of literally nothing due to his very resourceful nature that was a necessary requirement for surviving the brutal conditions that many russian and german soldiers faced in the conflict in the east. Ultimately he would desert the army in the wake of the russian revolution where he would flee initially to neutral sweden where he would meet his friend till the end of his days Cho-yun Hai or "Choy" as he refered to himself who had himself fled china in the wake of the Qing Dynasty's collapse in the midst of world war one and had taken to being a merchant sailor who would wind up bringing his family to new york city into its china town district and had coincedentally had the ship he was on head to sweden where he would meet and instantly befriend alek and him to do the same do to their similar backstories of having to scrape by to survive where he would get his name lumpy from choy due to choy remarking on his lumpy personality which alek would adopt himself and would move to america to new york city where the two would also become friends with former harlem hellfighter benjamin hayes and would be recruited as crew members for the foundation expedition to skull island in 1933 where they unlike their versions in the movies they all survived the expedition to skull island but never went on future expeditions due the many experiences that for alek caused him to suffer from ptsd which he may have possibly acquired from his days fighting in world war one which he never told anyone about. Regardless Choy and lumpy would overall be the main cooks for the 1933 expedition do to their resourceful natures allowing them to figure out what was edible on skull island and what was poisonous and are directly credited for being the first foundation personnel that learned what food was safe for human consumption on skull island via using captured small omnivourous dinosaurs as makeshift test rats.

following the first expedition to skull island he and choy would physically not return to skull island but would serve for many years as the main food experts using mice and other animals to make them eat any acquired food future skull island expeditions would acquire right up until the halt of the 1939 expedition when the second world war broke out. During the conflict they would be merchant marines helping to ship ration and food supplies to allied forces where they primarily served in the pacific theater where the two did high risk supply drop offs to chinese resistant forces in mainland china who were fighting the japanese under the cover of darkness until the war ended following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war they would retire and live out their days in new york city with benjamin hayes but would write frequent letters to other people of the 1933 expedition right up until their deaths where they each died peacefully in their sleep with lumpy passing in 1951 and choy in 1953 respectively with their families still alive today and are foundation confidants in new york city in the china town district.

Back onto the topic brutornis over the years would become one of the more frequently studied animals on skull island and as such more information is known about it due to the more longer time it has been known to us that with interviews with the peoples of skull island we now know where it stands. Through our understanding the brutornis due to its propensity to eating on anything smaller than itself is now widely regarded as being one of the most dangerous animals on skull island that will actively and regularly hunt humans as normally a good majority of human settlements on skull islands plains are away from predators such as v rex, skull crawlers, venatosaurs and gorophaganaxes do their being little cover for them to sneak up on them and the fact that the people will occasionally light on fire to ensure they have a clear cover however the terror birds due to coming from cenozoic south america are very much used to fires on savannahs and are undeterred and have across skull island from both in its anceint past with the first skull island civilization to the present day always been seen as a scourge to humans due to how aggressive they are and across the island exists multiple accounts and horror stories of mobs of terror birds terrorizing and attacking villages with the more disturbing accounts of how the terror birds will attack at night and steal away unguarded children and infants away from their parents which has across skull island resulted in every settlement with rooms that house babies or young children to be ENTIRELY without any windows and made of the most strongest materials with only ONE door so as to ensure if a predator got inside they would locked in and be forced to face a squad of people armed with weapons inside who had laid a trap to kill it.

Because of their reputation as child stealers it overall means that if any terror birds are sighted usually the first thing to be done is to ensure the children are put into a safe area at ALL times until it has either moved on or has been killed by hunters from the village. Even in the past when the skull island civilization ruled they were still seen as violent pests with their existing of stories of terror birds actually being used as mounts to subjugate the island in military conquests though even amongst the people of skull island that is normally heavily doubted given how aggressive in temperamant brutornis is to anything that isn't a member of its own kind to the point that full scale domestication is deemed totally impossible as attempts during the 1960s by the foundation via acquired eggs would prove so as when they were raised by human handlers the moment that humans stopped tending to them their natural instincts would reawaken and hunt them and thus it was deemed to unsuited for human use and has never been tried since both to ensure they remain in their natural habitat and to avoid any unnecessary loss of life.

Normally because of how fast they are they are able to outrun just about any human as well as any mount so the main method that skull island humans use to dispose of them is by sneaking up on them or luring them into traps and using ranged weapons from a distance meaning fire arms are the most effective ways to put down a terror bird with it being heavily recommended it be done from as far a distance as possible as they are able to kill a human very quickly with a swift hack of their beak that can break a skull with ease. Thus when terror birds are observed by foundation field explorers its always enforced that it be done with either drones or in heavily armored trucks and reinforced vans and NEVER on foot in the open nearby to them as they are much faster that they cannot be outran and are able to easily overpower the most physically adept of field agents.

Culturally the brutornis as well as most of the other terror birds on skull island in the mythology of skull island are said to be the many descandants of avos who was the skull island god that was the progenitor for every bird to exist on skull island both flightless and flying where while it varies by region the general idea was that the terror birds were swayed by the evil skull island gaw and had their minds corrupted but were unable to fulfill the desires of the evil entity and were abandoned and left to spread across skull island without anything to stop them to the point the modern brutornis came to be with documented accounts from near every major skull island settlement that dwells in the plains and grasslands all having their own unique takes and spins on the origins of brutornis and every other phorusrhacid that dwells on skull island.

In conclusion no matter how it is perceived the brutornis should be regarded by all foundation field agents who are interested in being assigned to skull island that on this landmass lost to time that the dinosaurs are the LEAST of the worries one should have and that the unexpected is what will be the cause of your demise should you not focus on learning and preparing to deal with so many dangerous creatures to ever exist in nature.

HELLO EVERYONE! theperson7 here bringing you another skull island profile this time on skull island's largest terror bird the brutornis. Now this deviation was a first for me as this is the very first proper bird i have made om deviantart and I feel like I did pretty decent as the overall original look of brutornis had very simple feathers which were easy for me to work with. Now in the original image of brutornis particularly the one where it is facing to the viewer it has these strange spike like claws in its wings with no elaboration as to what they are or what they did which left me able to apply my own interpretation as to what they were and thus the feather spines came to be. The next major change I added was to make the brutornis more social and more tolerant of its own species as to me I was fascinated by what the terror birds in real life tried to be that being the successors of theropod dinosaurs in a sense and I decided I would add some uncanny valley elements by making them attack in mobs a thing as the notion of 10 to 12 foot tall murder birds chasing after you sounds to me more scary than facing a T rex as they are big enough to where your considered prey to them whereas a T rex would see you realistically in the vain of how we see mice. Another reason being that while terror birds were pretty deadly on their own making them be able to cooperate with one another to bring down larger prey would help them better survive on skull island which has much more deadly animals compared to their original environment in cenozoic south america so by throwing in the possibility they could overpower a v rex or kong was a perfect way to highlight how even on skull island not even the top animals are always safe in certain circumstances. So with that I hope everyone is having a lovely day and be sure to leave a comment on what you think and what you want to see next and a fav as well so have a nice day.