Geese have a reputation for being aggressive birds, so imagine one that’s more than 6.6 ft tall and weighs about 507 lb. That’s Genyornis newtoni, an Ice Age “thunder bird” from Australia ...

Cranial kinesis allows modern birds to eat a wider variety of foods and use their beaks as multifunctional tools.

Piecing together the crushed skull of a fossil bird that lived alongside the dinosaurs helped researchers extrapolate what its brain would have looked like: big olfactory bulbs would have meant ...

For more than a century, scientists have been unsuccessfully hunting for skull fossils for the thunder bird species Genyornis newtoni. About 50,000 years ago, these titans, also known as mihirungs ...

Paleontologists Uncover Rare Skull of 500-Pound ‘Thunder Bird’ in Australia The most complete skull of the extinct, flightless bird ever found has revealed adaptations that might have made the ...

For more than a century, scientists have been unsuccessfully hunting for skull fossils for the thunder bird species Genyornis newtoni. About 50,000 years ago, these titans, also known as mihirungs ...

After 128 years of exploration, fossil excavation and investigation, Flinders University researchers have finally uncovered the skull of Australia's own giant and charismatic megafauna bird ...

The benefits of 'wiggly' skulls. Modern birds, ... and how other joints in the head limit the mobility." Wilken joined the project in 2015 when he was an undergraduate at the University of Missouri.

Researchers think that this shift in skull mechanics may have helped shape bird evolution, setting them apart from their prehistoric ancestors. Researchers from the University of Chicago and the ...

Both birds and reptiles are descended from the group Reptilia, which are diapsids, or animals with two openings on each side of the skull. So from a phylogenetic standpoint, birds are reptiles.

Compared with the skulls of most other birds, G. newtoni’s skull is quite short. But the jaws are massive, supported by powerful muscles. “They would have had a very wide gape,” McInerney said.