WI: Terror Bird doesn't go extinct

SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

So the terror bird, also known as Titanis was a giant flightless bird super predator. It walked on two very powerful legs, and had sharp and powerful claws. It had powerful jaw muscles and a razor sharp beak. They flourished sometime between the immediate post dinosaur age and before the modern esque mammals emerged. They evolved in South America, and then when North and South America was joined by the isthmus of panama, they extended their range into North America.


Interestingly enough, the terror bird is believed to be descended from T-Rex. So my question for you folks is, assuming the terror bird doesn't go extinct, and assuming humans don't become the dominant species, how does the terror bird make out and evolve over time? Could we see them dominate the South American and southern half of the North American continent?


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edit: also, if anyone cares where I got this from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U11z2DtGOC0
 
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Ledalek

slydessertfox said:
So the terror bird, also known as Titanus
They flourished sometime between the immediate post dinosaur age and before the modern esque mammals emerged.

Interestingly enough, the terror bird is believed to be descended from T-Rex.

So my question for you folks is, assuming the terror bird doesn't go extinct, and assuming humans don't become the dominant species, how does the terror bird make out and evolve over time? Could we see them dominate the South American and southern half of the North American continent?
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-I guess you refer to Titanis, which first appeared in Pliocene and existed all the way into early pleistocene when "modern esque mammals" existed..

-no, birds are not descendants of tyranosaurs..

-there were many species, some smaller, semi-flightless, and larger cursorial predators, they wouldnt change much, they would just continue doing what they did best, hunting and scavenging on plains
 

Archon of Thessaly

Firstly, no birds are related from Tyrannosaurs-they come from the Therapod family of Saurasin dinosaurs, more related to Deinonychus than T-Rex.

Secondly, to stop it dying out you need to A: stop N and S America from joining up and B to stop saber-tooth out competing them.
 

maidros

If there are no humans, chances are they will become the politicians of the world. Do you think they will also build an empire?
 

Polish Eagle

Did terror birds hunt in packs? Or were they solitary?

If the former, domestication is a possibility. If the latter, then I'd imagine a rhino would make a better mount.
 

NothingNow

Banned
Polish Eagle said:
Did terror birds hunt in packs? Or were they solitary?
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We don't know. Seriemas are generally solitary hunters, but don't go after Megafauna. Given the size of a terror bird though, they'd be damned smart, and could likely go either way.

They'd probably be way too smart to domesticate.
 

Captain Jack

IIRC the Terror birds were one of the very few South American animals that was able to expand North when North and South America joined up. I believe their range extended into modern day Texas and didn't go extinct until about 10,000 years ago so I'd fully expect them to continue to thrive. It seems like the North American plains should be a pretty ideal habitat for them. Perhaps we could see three distinct sub-species evolving? One in the North America plains, one in the South American pampas and another in the middle once the rainforest develops?
 
Huehuecoyotl

Huehuecoyotl

Hard to say. Modern seriemas aren't hierarchical animals, and Titanis would be too dangerous for humans to corral or attempt to breed, so it's never going to be domesticated. Ecologically, the presence of a huge, fast arch-predator will drastically alter the food chain in most of the Americas. The butterflies will mean that human societies in the Western Hemisphere will turn out differently as well, but it's difficult to say just how.
 
Huehuecoyotl

Huehuecoyotl

Even a canny predator like Titanis is ultimately no match for mankind. Even if they aren't driven to extinction (for they'd be in competition with humans for prey animals, and would be dangerous enough to warrant concerted efforts to hunt them) they would be much reduced in range, eventually becoming rare but feared animals. I bet that in this scenario, the terror bird would factor hugely in mythologies of the Americas. Phorusrhachid gods would be fairly badass. :)

Or, are you asking about Titanis' fate should humanity not arise at all? There's not really any way for a POD in the Americas to butterfly the evolution and arrival of humans, unless it's a supervolcanic eruption. Such a POD would have to be ASB in any event.
 
Huehuecoyotl

Huehuecoyotl

slydessertfox said:
Well I wasn't talking about Titanis driving the humans into extinction, just the human species in general going extinct in TTL.
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I didn't think that's what you meant; I just meant that humans will arise whether Titanis goes extinct or not.

But, it may very well survive if humans don't arise at all - as will scads of other megafauna on every continent, which may make for an interesting purely-zoological TL where the Neogene chugs on and the age of the great mammals doesn't dwindle as it did IOTL.
 

Polish Eagle

mowque said:
Is that a thing? Pigs and dogs are pretty bright and we often select FOR intelligence in the latter.
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Sheep too, in different ways.

I asked about pack behavior because, as a rule of thumb, hunters and large animals that travel in some larger-than-mother-child social group are easier to domesticate. Dogs consider humans part of the pack, cattle, horses, and sheep have a herding behavior that humans were able to modify for our use, etc.

If the birds had some social behavior, flocks and alpha-birds and the like, then there's more to work with than if they were basically feathered, predatory rhinos (which are territorial and none-too-bright, and so are very hostile to humans who approach them).

Then again, some birds imprint from the point of hatching. That's one way to earn the trust of a Terror Bird.
 
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