Palaeontologists have discovered a chicken-sized prehistoric bird which they say used its club-like wings as a weapon during a fight. The bird, called Xenicibis, is believed to be a member of the ibis family and lived in the Jamaican region about 10,000-years-ago, said Yale University and Smithsonian Institution research team that made the discovery.
According to the researchers, Xenicibis used its specialised wings like a flail, swinging its upper arm and striking its enemies with its thick hand bones.
“No animal has ever evolved anything quite like this,” said Nicholas Longrich of Yale University, who led the study.
“We don’t know of any other species that uses its body like a flail. It’s the most specialised weaponry of any bird I’ve ever seen.” As part of the new study, appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal, the team analysed a number of recently discovered partial skeletons of Xenicibis and found that the wings were drastically different from anything they had seen before. “When I first saw it, I assumed it was some sort of deformity,” Longrich said. “No one could believe it was actually that bizarre.” The bird, which was the size of a large chicken, is anatomically similar to other members of the ibis family except for its wings, which include thick, curved hand bones unlike those of any other known bird.
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Baker Street singer Gerry Rafferty dies
London: Singer Gerry Rafferty, best known for his 1972 hit Stuck In The Middle With You, has died at the age of 63.
Rafferty, who battled with drink problem, was admitted in a hospital in November with liver failure. The singer passed away peacefully at home, his daughter Martha said.
The singer-songwriter started his career in a school band before working with Billy Connolly’s folk band “The Humblebums”. The pair parted in 1970 after the Big Yin’s comic stories gradually took up more of their set, the Daily Mail reported.
The singer is best known for his solo hit Baker Street and Stuck In The Middle With You with his band Stealers Wheel. —PTI