E1
Terror Bird
The terror bird, Titanis, was depicted as a mortal predator that competed with the smaller, but equally aggressive Canis edwardii and Smilodon gracilis. The force and power of the neck muscles is shown by a rendering of the animal hunting a horse in the beginning of the episode. To kill it, it drives its beak into the vertebral column, severing the spinal cord. Another example of this power is shown when the creature kills a species of ground sloth, using the same method. At the end of the episode, the crew was discussing extinction in the terror bird, two million years ago, and their conclusion was it was outcompeted for food by Smilodon gracilis and Canis edwardii, as well as inability to adapt to climate change.
Sep 13, 2009 33m