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Description
Titanis walleri

The Great American Interchange. It was a massive event in the history of the Americas’ biodiversity. This event would lead to the formation of the core megafauna of both North and South America until the arrival of humans.

With the awe-inspiring saber-tooth Smilodon invading South America to ground sloths doing the inverse and colonizing North and Central America along with their cousins, the anteaters.
However, an overlooked migrant who invaded the north is the legendary Titanis walleri—the last giant terror bird who would terrorize the Americas, reaching its apex during the mid to late Pliocene.

History and Discovery:

In 1961, Benjamin Waller and Robert Allen, two amateur scuba divers from north-central Florida, were prospecting for artifacts and fossils to sell. Over the course of a year, they unearthed a host of fossils. From horses, mammoths, mastodons, and a couple of fragments of a glyptodont’s armor, among others. Lacking the income to set up a shop and in the days before online fossil shopping, there was only one broker within striking distance they could broach to, the University of Florida’s museum in Gainesville. They sold the fossils in 1962 injecting a massive portion of fossils into the museum’s collection.

During that time, paleontologist Clayton Ray looked over the fossils when he saw some bird remains. However, this was no ordinary starling or parrot. They were massive from birds, comparable to ostriches. Ray brought in his colleague, Pierce Brodkorb, to analyze the fossils. They were believed to have dated to about 2.5-1,800,000 years ago, the Blancan stage of stratigraphy, or the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene.

When he gathered all the material, it consisted of a tarsometatarsus and a pedal phalanx (the foot and a toe bone). Brodkorb then went on to describe the remains. At first, he thought it was a paleognath, a giant rhea of some sort; however, Ray, when looking at the remains closer, found similarities to Devincenzia and Phorusrhacos, the terror birds, a group of flightless predatory birds who ruled South America from the Eocene to the Pleistocene. Right before Brodkorb finished the final draft of the description, Ray brought this to his colleague and revised it.

The first evidence of terror birds in North America was revealed to the world in The Auk, an ornithological journal, in April 1963. It was dubbed Titanis walleri. The generic name in reference to "Titans" of Greek Mythology and the specific name after one of the divers who found the remains, Benjamin Waller.

A Dating Conundrum:

It should be noted there was one error that was included in the description. Brodkorb noted this terror bird made it not just to the Blancan but the Rancholabrean era of the Pleistocene, or 1,800,000 to 13,000 years ago. When Brodkorb analyzed the initial remains, he came to this conclusion even though it was erroneous. However, in the years following the description, remains of Titanis were found in Texas, Florida and skull material in Southern California, ranging from 2.6-1,800,000 years ago. However, the Texas remains found in 1995 gained scrutiny in that this find was described to be dated to around 25-15,000 years ago. The late Pleistocene, as Brodkorb described. However, a decade later, rare earth elements analysis indicates these remains were from the mid to late Pliocene, around 2.5-2,200,000 years ago. The mistake occurred because the remains were jumbled, featuring a mixture of Plio-Pleistocene remains.

As of now, giant terror birds died out not in the late Pleistocene but the earliest, roughly 1,800,000 years ago.

Description:

Terror birds were a group of avian apex predators that dominated South America for some 50,000,000 years. Some species, like Psilopterus, were slightly larger than seriema, which are their closest living relatives. Others like Phorusrhacos, Kelenken, and Titanis were larger than a man, had massive skulls, and could kill medium to large prey. Titanis was the last remaining giant species and the only one so far known that invaded the US. Fossil finds across the southern US at the latest date to around 5,000,000 years ago and existing to around 1,800,000 years ago.

By studying the bones and comparing them with more complete examples of terror birds such as Andalagornis and Phorusrhacos, Titanis is one of the largest terror birds.

Initially, it was listed as the largest, at 7.9-9.5ft tall and about 500lbs. However, these estimates are now viewed to be outdated. More proper estimates put it at around 6.4-6.8ft tall and weighing around 390-440lbs. Nonetheless, this would still make it one of the biggest terror birds and one of the largest predatory birds.

The skull is only known from fragments but is estimated to be between 16 and 22 inches long. Based on analysis of the fragments and crude reconstructions, its build would’ve been like Patagornis and Phorusrhacos.
As for the rest of the body, the torso would’ve been heavily built, as with most large-bodied Phorusrhacids. The feet of Titanis’ toes are comparatively more spread out than other terror birds, with an enlarged central toe and a killing claw on the third digit similar to the dromaeosaurs of the Mesozoic and modern birds of prey.

Clawed-Wing confusion:

In 1994, the remains of Titanis’ wing were discovered in Florida. In terms of build, they were more heavily built than most paleognaths like ostriches and had a very robust wrist joint.
This led Robert Chandler of the Florida Museum of Natural History to propose that Titanis and its kin had a claw or even a mobile hand on their wings to restrain prey—a fascinating depiction of a group of birds evolving a hand or something like a hand once again.

This was not without controversy and was refuted in 2005 by Gina Gould and Irvy Quitmyer by noting that proportionally, Seriemas, the closest modern relatives to terror birds, had similar joints, and they do not have evidence of hands or claws of any kind.

It also should be noted that the wings of terror birds sported long wing feathers based on quill knobs found on the wings. Although they couldn’t fly, perhaps the robustness of their wings for a different purpose will be discussed in the next section.

Paleobiology and behavior:

The robust forelimbs equipped with massive wings could’ve been used to help maneuver when pursuing prey, maneuvering like ostriches and emus today. Or they could’ve also been used for display for mates.
When phorusrhacids were first found, they were thought predators of smaller prey or scavenged from carcasses due to a weak bite force and may have eaten lizards and small mammals. Swallowing them whole after chasing down the small prey item.

However, analysis in 2010 showed phorusrhacids with robust skulls, such as Andalagornis and Titanis, would’ve used their heads like a hatchet. Their neck muscles drive the hooked portion of the beak into their quarry. This would’ve enabled them to hunt larger prey. The robust muscles of the neck, in tandem with the hooked beak, would’ve also helped them to shear flesh more effectively than other predatory birds.
The speed of these birds ranged widely, with most being extremely fast. Titanis was estimated to be as fast as a greyhound or around 45mph.

Habitat and Competition:

The environment of the southern United States was more forested than it is today. The environment would’ve been tropical to subtropical scrubland and prairie patches in between—a perfect environment for these birds to hunt.

And there was plenty of prey to hunt. Perissodactyls like tapir and horses were present at this time, as well as deer, camels, and pronghorn. Easy pickings for terror birds to chase down. Glyptodonts, ground sloths, and various proboscideans lived in the regions where Titanis resided, too. Whether or not they preyed on them is debatable, but they shared the same environment.

The predators Titanis would have faced were numerous. Among them were some of the first Short-Faced Bears from the genus Arctodus. While not as large as its later Pleistocene cousin, A.pristinus could’ve fought for food from them to time.

Borophagines, the bone-crushing dogs, were present in the range, too. Hunting some of the smaller prey in the Americas. Competing and ultimately killing off the borophagines were modern canids like Aenocyon and Canis edwardii would’ve been present with Titanis.

The most famous competition would undoubtedly be the felids. Miracinonyx, AKA the American Cheetah and early cousins of felids like the Puma, would’ve been around; however, the most famous would’ve been the saber-toothed cats.

Contrary to Walking With Beasts and other forms of paleo media, Titanis did not meet the famous Smilodon populator. It arose around 1,000,000 years ago, exclusively in South America, nor did it encounter S.fatalis as it emerged 1,600,000 years ago in North America. The only Smilodon Titanis would’ve met was S.gracilis. The common ancestor to the latter two species, around the size of a small jaguar at 200 to 260lbs, this cat likely would not have amounted to serious competition nor a threat to Titanis except to juveniles or its chicks. However, within its range was a much larger saber-toothed cat: Xenosmilus. A homothere that prowled the southern United States and was around double the size of Titanis with a robust and muscular body, this cat would’ve been one of the few hyper-carnivorous predators Titanis would’ve encountered that could’ve posed a severe threat to its dominance.

Extinction:

Titanis died out around 1,800,000 years ago. The reasons for the extinction are still up for debate.

As previously shown, Titanis competed with a myriad of mammalian predators. It’s often discussed that competition with mammalian apex predators, specifically pantherines and saber-toothed cats, led to the extinction of this remarkable bird. However, part of this myth was perpetuated because of the paleo media Walking With Beasts and the erroneously dated remains of Titanis. In reality, Titanis competed with many mammalian carnivores. Even when South America was isolated, its ancestors competed with predators like sparassodont predators like Borhyaena and Patagosmilus in South America. It likely would not have been due to over-competition that this bird died out, but rather a component.

The far more likely case is climate change, as the earth trended towards a global cooling event that led to the vanishing of woodland and scrubland habitats. Early forms of the Mammoth Steppe and open prairie replaced it.

With its environment diminishing, larger predators starting to enter the Americas like Arctodus and pantherines meant Titanis would’ve been boxed into a corner and faced a perfect storm that would’ve culminated with its extinction.

With the extinction of Titanis, the last of the giant terror birds vanished. Leaving possibly only its distant cousin, Psilopterus to carry on, though this is debated and a story for another profile.

While Titanis is extinct, its story is not less fascinating. This awe-inspiring beast once dominated North America and represented the last hurrah of South America’s prehistoric heritage, where the descendants of dinosaurs reigned and then emigrated to North America.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

I decided to pick back up profiles and wrote this late last night. With Demon Hunter releasing his amazing Awesome Birds Pack and featuring a host of remarkable birds. Terror birds were chief among them and when I saw Titanis, I thought this would be perfect.

Here is it chasing a Hagerman Horse and based on the more iconic classic image of Titanis seen below:
Titanis, giant, chasing the primitive horse Hipparion in (mediastorehouse.com)

As far as PMP goes, this will not be featured in the episode. I was going back and forth on this, but ultimately decided this would not work for the series.

Horse by Eryel modified by me:
Przewalski's Wild Horse (Eryel) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom

Titanis by DemonHunterZT2 :
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/b7uyzzb… ... 4b4vh&dl=0

Description
Titanis walleri

The Great American Interchange. It was a massive event in the history of the Americas’ biodiversity. This event would lead to the formation of the core megafauna of both North and South America until the arrival of humans.

With the awe-inspiring saber-tooth Smilodon invading South America to ground sloths doing the inverse and colonizing North and Central America along with their cousins, the anteaters.
However, an overlooked migrant who invaded the north is the legendary Titanis walleri—the last giant terror bird who would terrorize the Americas, reaching its apex during the mid to late Pliocene.

History and Discovery:

In 1961, Benjamin Waller and Robert Allen, two amateur scuba divers from north-central Florida, were prospecting for artifacts and fossils to sell. Over the course of a year, they unearthed a host of fossils. From horses, mammoths, mastodons, and a couple of fragments of a glyptodont’s armor, among others. Lacking the income to set up a shop and in the days before online fossil shopping, there was only one broker within striking distance they could broach to, the University of Florida’s museum in Gainesville. They sold the fossils in 1962 injecting a massive portion of fossils into the museum’s collection.

During that time, paleontologist Clayton Ray looked over the fossils when he saw some bird remains. However, this was no ordinary starling or parrot. They were massive from birds, comparable to ostriches. Ray brought in his colleague, Pierce Brodkorb, to analyze the fossils. They were believed to have dated to about 2.5-1,800,000 years ago, the Blancan stage of stratigraphy, or the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene.

When he gathered all the material, it consisted of a tarsometatarsus and a pedal phalanx (the foot and a toe bone). Brodkorb then went on to describe the remains. At first, he thought it was a paleognath, a giant rhea of some sort; however, Ray, when looking at the remains closer, found similarities to Devincenzia and Phorusrhacos, the terror birds, a group of flightless predatory birds who ruled South America from the Eocene to the Pleistocene. Right before Brodkorb finished the final draft of the description, Ray brought this to his colleague and revised it.

The first evidence of terror birds in North America was revealed to the world in The Auk, an ornithological journal, in April 1963. It was dubbed Titanis walleri. The generic name in reference to "Titans" of Greek Mythology and the specific name after one of the divers who found the remains, Benjamin Waller.

A Dating Conundrum:

It should be noted there was one error that was included in the description. Brodkorb noted this terror bird made it not just to the Blancan but the Rancholabrean era of the Pleistocene, or 1,800,000 to 13,000 years ago. When Brodkorb analyzed the initial remains, he came to this conclusion even though it was erroneous. However, in the years following the description, remains of Titanis were found in Texas, Florida and skull material in Southern California, ranging from 2.6-1,800,000 years ago. However, the Texas remains found in 1995 gained scrutiny in that this find was described to be dated to around 25-15,000 years ago. The late Pleistocene, as Brodkorb described. However, a decade later, rare earth elements analysis indicates these remains were from the mid to late Pliocene, around 2.5-2,200,000 years ago. The mistake occurred because the remains were jumbled, featuring a mixture of Plio-Pleistocene remains.

As of now, giant terror birds died out not in the late Pleistocene but the earliest, roughly 1,800,000 years ago.

Description:

Terror birds were a group of avian apex predators that dominated South America for some 50,000,000 years. Some species, like Psilopterus, were slightly larger than seriema, which are their closest living relatives. Others like Phorusrhacos, Kelenken, and Titanis were larger than a man, had massive skulls, and could kill medium to large prey. Titanis was the last remaining giant species and the only one so far known that invaded the US. Fossil finds across the southern US at the latest date to around 5,000,000 years ago and existing to around 1,800,000 years ago.

By studying the bones and comparing them with more complete examples of terror birds such as Andalagornis and Phorusrhacos, Titanis is one of the largest terror birds.

Initially, it was listed as the largest, at 7.9-9.5ft tall and about 500lbs. However, these estimates are now viewed to be outdated. More proper estimates put it at around 6.4-6.8ft tall and weighing around 390-440lbs. Nonetheless, this would still make it one of the biggest terror birds and one of the largest predatory birds.

The skull is only known from fragments but is estimated to be between 16 and 22 inches long. Based on analysis of the fragments and crude reconstructions, its build would’ve been like Patagornis and Phorusrhacos.
As for the rest of the body, the torso would’ve been heavily built, as with most large-bodied Phorusrhacids. The feet of Titanis’ toes are comparatively more spread out than other terror birds, with an enlarged central toe and a killing claw on the third digit similar to the dromaeosaurs of the Mesozoic and modern birds of prey.

Clawed-Wing confusion:

In 1994, the remains of Titanis’ wing were discovered in Florida. In terms of build, they were more heavily built than most paleognaths like ostriches and had a very robust wrist joint.
This led Robert Chandler of the Florida Museum of Natural History to propose that Titanis and its kin had a claw or even a mobile hand on their wings to restrain prey—a fascinating depiction of a group of birds evolving a hand or something like a hand once again.

This was not without controversy and was refuted in 2005 by Gina Gould and Irvy Quitmyer by noting that proportionally, Seriemas, the closest modern relatives to terror birds, had similar joints, and they do not have evidence of hands or claws of any kind.

It also should be noted that the wings of terror birds sported long wing feathers based on quill knobs found on the wings. Although they couldn’t fly, perhaps the robustness of their wings for a different purpose will be discussed in the next section.

Paleobiology and behavior:

The robust forelimbs equipped with massive wings could’ve been used to help maneuver when pursuing prey, maneuvering like ostriches and emus today. Or they could’ve also been used for display for mates.
When phorusrhacids were first found, they were thought predators of smaller prey or scavenged from carcasses due to a weak bite force and may have eaten lizards and small mammals. Swallowing them whole after chasing down the small prey item.

However, analysis in 2010 showed phorusrhacids with robust skulls, such as Andalagornis and Titanis, would’ve used their heads like a hatchet. Their neck muscles drive the hooked portion of the beak into their quarry. This would’ve enabled them to hunt larger prey. The robust muscles of the neck, in tandem with the hooked beak, would’ve also helped them to shear flesh more effectively than other predatory birds.
The speed of these birds ranged widely, with most being extremely fast. Titanis was estimated to be as fast as a greyhound or around 45mph.

Habitat and Competition:

The environment of the southern United States was more forested than it is today. The environment would’ve been tropical to subtropical scrubland and prairie patches in between—a perfect environment for these birds to hunt.

And there was plenty of prey to hunt. Perissodactyls like tapir and horses were present at this time, as well as deer, camels, and pronghorn. Easy pickings for terror birds to chase down. Glyptodonts, ground sloths, and various proboscideans lived in the regions where Titanis resided, too. Whether or not they preyed on them is debatable, but they shared the same environment.

The predators Titanis would have faced were numerous. Among them were some of the first Short-Faced Bears from the genus Arctodus. While not as large as its later Pleistocene cousin, A.pristinus could’ve fought for food from them to time.

Borophagines, the bone-crushing dogs, were present in the range, too. Hunting some of the smaller prey in the Americas. Competing and ultimately killing off the borophagines were modern canids like Aenocyon and Canis edwardii would’ve been present with Titanis.

The most famous competition would undoubtedly be the felids. Miracinonyx, AKA the American Cheetah and early cousins of felids like the Puma, would’ve been around; however, the most famous would’ve been the saber-toothed cats.

Contrary to Walking With Beasts and other forms of paleo media, Titanis did not meet the famous Smilodon populator. It arose around 1,000,000 years ago, exclusively in South America, nor did it encounter S.fatalis as it emerged 1,600,000 years ago in North America. The only Smilodon Titanis would’ve met was S.gracilis. The common ancestor to the latter two species, around the size of a small jaguar at 200 to 260lbs, this cat likely would not have amounted to serious competition nor a threat to Titanis except to juveniles or its chicks. However, within its range was a much larger saber-toothed cat: Xenosmilus. A homothere that prowled the southern United States and was around double the size of Titanis with a robust and muscular body, this cat would’ve been one of the few hyper-carnivorous predators Titanis would’ve encountered that could’ve posed a severe threat to its dominance.

Extinction:

Titanis died out around 1,800,000 years ago. The reasons for the extinction are still up for debate.

As previously shown, Titanis competed with a myriad of mammalian predators. It’s often discussed that competition with mammalian apex predators, specifically pantherines and saber-toothed cats, led to the extinction of this remarkable bird. However, part of this myth was perpetuated because of the paleo media Walking With Beasts and the erroneously dated remains of Titanis. In reality, Titanis competed with many mammalian carnivores. Even when South America was isolated, its ancestors competed with predators like sparassodont predators like Borhyaena and Patagosmilus in South America. It likely would not have been due to over-competition that this bird died out, but rather a component.

The far more likely case is climate change, as the earth trended towards a global cooling event that led to the vanishing of woodland and scrubland habitats. Early forms of the Mammoth Steppe and open prairie replaced it.

With its environment diminishing, larger predators starting to enter the Americas like Arctodus and pantherines meant Titanis would’ve been boxed into a corner and faced a perfect storm that would’ve culminated with its extinction.

With the extinction of Titanis, the last of the giant terror birds vanished. Leaving possibly only its distant cousin, Psilopterus to carry on, though this is debated and a story for another profile.

While Titanis is extinct, its story is not less fascinating. This awe-inspiring beast once dominated North America and represented the last hurrah of South America’s prehistoric heritage, where the descendants of dinosaurs reigned and then emigrated to North America.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

I decided to pick back up profiles and wrote this late last night. With Demon Hunter releasing his amazing Awesome Birds Pack and featuring a host of remarkable birds. Terror birds were chief among them and when I saw Titanis, I thought this would be perfect.

Here is it chasing a Hagerman Horse and based on the more iconic classic image of Titanis seen below:
Titanis, giant, chasing the primitive horse Hipparion in (mediastorehouse.com)

As far as PMP goes, this will not be featured in the episode. I was going back and forth on this, but ultimately decided this would not work for the series.

Horse by Eryel modified by me:
Przewalski's Wild Horse (Eryel) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom

Titanis by DemonHunterZT2 :
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/b7uyzzb… ... 4b4vh&dl=0