#FossilFriday The 150~200kg Phorusrhacos was the first-described terror bird, and is the type genus for Phorusrhacidae as a whole. Despite often being depicted with a short, tall skull, in reality it (and most larger phorusrhacids) had longer skulls.

2 comments — live from bluesky

Aaron Woodruff · 1 · 1d ago
In a way the longer beak kinda make them more terrifying. That just makes me think they hunted prey in a manner similar to a skua or petrel. If you know anything about them you know that's a brutal way to go out! 😨
Great Dying Survivor · 1 · 1d ago
There are certain similarities with giant petrels, but terror birds also had a whole suite of adaptations in their skull and neck convergent with sabretoothed cats and allosauroids, which takes that up to 11.
Great Dying Survivor · 0 · 1d ago
This is also NOT the largest terror bird; there are three that are quite a bit bigger than this.