Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown species of giant eagle that once lived in Australia, according to a paper in Australasian Science by the study’s lead author, Ellen Mather, a PhD candidate in paleontology at Flinders University.
The new species, named ‘Dynatoaetus gaffae’ or ‘Gaff’s powerful eagle’, was described based on fossils found between 1959 and 2021 in the Mairs cave, in the south of the country, in a study published in the Journal of Ornithology.
‘Dynatoaetus gaffae’ lived during the Pleistocene epoch, between 700,000 and 50,000 years ago. Twice the size of a bold eagle, the type that exists today in Australia (and with which it co-existed), and a potential wingspan of up to 3 metres, this species would be the largest known eagle to have lived in the country and one of the largest continental birds of prey in the world.
Scientists have suggested that, with its enormous claws reaching a length of 30 centimeters, it could hunt prey comparable in size to modern adult kangaroos (1.3 meters tall) and koalas.
During the reign of the eagle, Australia was populated by other giant creatures, including large flightless birds, giant kangaroos (‘Procoptodon sp.’), giant lizards (‘Varanus priscus’) and bear-like marsupials (‘Diprotodon optatum’). , but Dynatoaetus gaffae was certainly big enough to catch them.
Scientists surmise that the ‘mighty Gaff eagle’ went extinct around the same time as much of Australia’s megafauna, around 50,000 years ago. Probably, as it hunted certain large species, it could not have adapted to the change in diet when its favorite prey ceased to exist.
