Giant bird thought extinct for thousands of years never actually disappeared

Giant bird thought extinct for thousands of years never actually disappeared

Giant bird thought extinct for thousands of years never actually disappeared

Ancient DNA has solved a 150-year-old mystery: the giant crane bones found in European caves did not belong to a lost species at all. Researchers at Bournemouth University, working with the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, tested 18 crane bones from England, Wales, France, Germany and the Balearic Islands and found they were all common cranes. The oversized bones were probably larger males of the living species, not a separate extinct bird, and scientists now want to find out why cranes have shrunk since the last Ice Age.

Ancient DNA has solved a 150-year-old mystery: the giant crane bones found in European caves did not belong to a lost species at all. Researchers at Bournemouth University, working with the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, tested 18 crane bones from England, Wales, France, Germany and the Balearic Islands and found they were all common cranes. The oversized bones were probably larger males of the living species, not a separate extinct bird, and scientists now want to find out why cranes have shrunk since the last Ice Age.

Ancient DNA has solved a 150-year-old mystery: the giant crane bones found in European caves did not belong to a lost species at all. Researchers at Bournemouth University, working with the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, tested 18 crane bones from England, Wales, France, Germany and the Balearic Islands and found they were all common cranes. The oversized bones were probably larger males of the living species, not a separate extinct bird, and scientists now want to find out why cranes have shrunk since the last Ice Age.