TERRIFYING 500-pound prehistoric geese once roamed the Australian outback, according to experts.
Scientists recently discovered a huge “thunderbird” skull belonging to one of the creatures – which are fives times as heavy as an emu.
They believe finding the Genyornis newtoni – aka “Giga-Goose” – skull will give them insight into what the flightless bird looked like.
The “stunningly rare” 32cm fossil was found in 2019 on the dry beds of Lake Callabonnamis and is thought to be around 45,000- to 50,000-years old.
Thousands of creatures were killed when they became stuck in the river bank’s thick mud.
Lead author of the study, Dr Phoebe McInerney, of Flinders University, Adelaide, said: “Realising it was an intact skull was just so satisfying.”
“The Genyornis has been known [about] for 128 years – and now we’ve actually got a skull for it.”
The only other known skull for this species, reported on in 1913, was heavily damaged and had only a small amount of the original bone, so little could be gleaned from it.
The author wrote: “Genyornis newtoni had a tall and mobile upper jaw like that of a parrot but shaped like a goose, a wide gape, strong bite force, and the ability to crush soft plants and fruit on the roof of their mouth.”
Parts of the well-preserved skull also had some similarities to the existing breeds of goose such as South American screamers and the Australian Magpie goose.
“The exact relationships of Genyornis within this group have been complicated to unravel, however, with this new skull we have started to piece together the puzzle which shows, simply put, this species to be a giant goose,” added Phoebe.
