But it is the nature of intelligence that nothing is what it at first appears. This will give us an appropriate reference frame for the terror bird values.When Yu Qiangsheng, a top official of the Ministry of State Security, stole across the border to Hong Kong in November 1985, he left behind a fragile Chinese intelligence service that seemed ready to collapse. However, we want to be absolutely confident in our findings by analysing known herbivores and carnivores using fossilised bone from the same site and the same time period. “Because calcium is a major proportion of bone – around 40% by weight – its composition is unlikely to have been affected much by fossilisation. “Tooth enamel preserves original geochemical signatures much better than bone, but since Gastornis didn’t have any teeth, we’ve had to work with their bones to do our calcium isotope assay,” explains Dr Tütken. Before the debate is finally closed, however, the researchers want to cross check their data using other fossil assemblages to be completely sure. Their results show that the calcium isotope compositions of terror bird bones are similar to those of herbivorous mammals and dinosaurs and not carnivorous ones. They tested the method first with herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs – including top predator T-Rex – as well as mammals living today, before applying it to terror bird bones held in the Geiseltal collection at Martin-Luther University in Halle. This depends on the calcium isotopic composition becoming “lighter” as it passes through the food chain. By analysing the calcium isotope composition in fossilised bones, they have been able to identify what proportion of a creature’s diet was plant or animal and, on that basis, their position in the food chain of the local ecosystem. But, without conclusive findings either way, the dietary inclinations of Gastornis remain a mystery.ĭr Tütken and his colleagues Dr Meinolf Hellmund, Dr Stephen Galer and Petra Held have taken a new geochemical approach to determine the diet of Gastornis. Also, the bird’s sheer size and inability to move fast has made some believe it couldn’t have predated on early mammals – though others claim it might have ambushed them. Palaeontologists in the United States found footprints believed to belong to the American cousin of Gastornis, and these do not show the imprints of sharp claws, used to grapple prey, that might be expected of a raptor. Recent research has cast some doubt on its diet, however. “It lived after the dinosaurs became extinct and at a time when mammals were at an early stage of evolution and relatively small thus, the terror bird was though to have been a top predator at that time on land.” “The terror bird was thought to have used its huge beak to grab and break the neck of its prey, which is supported by biomechanical modelling of its bite force,” says Dr Thomas Tütken, from the University of Bonn. Based upon its size and ominous appearance, scientists have long assumed that it was a ruthless carnivore. The terror bird – also known as Gastornis – was a flightless bird up to two metres in height with an enormous, ferocious beak.

Terror bird sketch