Fossil Novembirb: Day 16 - Among The Giants
During the Oligocene epoch, 33-23 million years ago, the landscape of Mongolia was as endlessly vast and wild as today. Forests were rare in this part of the world, instead there were shrublands, savannahs and deserts there. This landscape was the realm of giants, like the Paraceratherium of Walking With Beasts fame. Birds were also living in this land of giants, and some were already adapting to it.
Heterostrix: A small early owl, roughly the size of modern pygmy owls. But despite its small size, it was a capable predator of large insects, lizards and mammals, even birds as large as itself.
Agnopterus: One of the earliest known true flamingoes. Little is known of this bird, but it likely fed on tiny crustaceans filtered from the water, as do modern flamingoes.
Sonogrus: One of the flightless paleognath birds that was closely related to ostriches. This fleet footed herbivore belonged to the group known as paragruids.
Ergilornis: Another stem-ostrich in the group known as ergilornithids. The inner toe of these birds was reduced in size to allow for more efficient running.
Caspiodontornis: One of the few pelagornithids known from Asia, this pseudotoothed giant flew above the remnants of the ancient Tethys Sea.
