ieightpi comments on Giant eagles once ruled the skies. They snatched human children, and shaped our evolution

[–] ieightpi@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (6 children)

But Australopithecus africanus wasn't an"early human" as the article states. It was a up right ape that probably resembled a chimpanzee. So people are imagining a human toddler being snatched away by a giant bird but in reality that was hardly the case. Still sad but this article still feels like sensationalism.

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[–] dogsnest@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Australopithecus africanus are Hominini:

The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: Homo (humans) and Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus Gorilla (gorillas), which is grouped separately within the subfamily Homininae.

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[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 1 point 1 day ago

There are oral histories of children being taken by Haast's eagle in New Zealand.

These birds were monsters that hunted people.

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[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 1 point 1 day ago

We do have children skulls that show they were grabbed from above by birds in our fossil records. It was almost always children under three. It happened enough that we have surviving records of it

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[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Using the same approach, phylogenically speaking early humans were chased by gigantic anomalocaris during the Cambrian period.

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[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago