Meganhinga chilensis
By Ripley Cook
Etymology: The Great Darter
First Described By: Alvarenga, 1995
Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Aequorlitornithes, Ardeae, Aequornithes, Suliformes, Anhingidae
Status: Extinct
Time and Place: 17 to 14 million years ago, in the Burdigalian to Langhian ages of the Miocene
Meganhinga is known from the Malla-Mall Member of the Cura-Mallín Formation
Physical Description: Meganhinga was, in a lot of ways, essentially just a scaled-up version of the birds we know today as Darters - it had a long body, with a very long neck, small head, and long pointy beak. This was similar in every way to living Darters. It was quite long for a darter, about a meter long, which is about as big as they get today (but usually living Darters are much smaller). But, notably for Darters, it had quite small wings indeed. This means that Meganhinga was, above all, a flightless bird.
Diet: Meganhinga probably fed on fish and other vertebrates, like its living relatives; its uncertain if it was able to dive as well as its living relatives, so its possible it relied more on land life than its living relatives.
Behavior: Meganhinga, being flightless, probably would have spent more of its time on land grabbing food than living relatives. Still, despite this, it would have spent much of its time by the shoreline, diving into the water and searching for food. Its long neck could be darted out to grab food, including fish, as it would stand on the shoreline. It would probably breed in colonies, and it seems most likely that they would have been somewhat monogamous in breeding habits like living Darters.
Ecosystem: Meganhinga lived in a lake and river basin near the coast, filled with plenty of aquatic places for Meganhinga to find food. This freshwater basin was created by extensive volcanic activity, which would have decided affected the ecology and creatures living there. Many different kinds of animals resided here with Meganhinga, though most were mammals; creatures such as Toxodonts, Astrapotherium, marsupials like Polydolops, the fascinating Mylodontid sloth Nematherium, a glyptodont, Protypotherium, a wide variety of rodents, and other creatures all populated the valley. Despite this, there doesn’t really seem to be another bird from this formation known at this time.
Other: Meganhinga is quite distinctive for being, possibly, the oldest known species of Darter, which makes the fact that it is quite weird compared to living darters very noticeable. In fact, a variety of large, flightless Darters from the Miocene have been found - Meganhinga, Macranhinga, and Giganhinga - all from the are of Chile in the Miocene. This indicates flightlessness was a major lifemode for Darters prior to modern times. Interestingly enough, some phylogenies indicate modern darters evolved from these forms, meaning that these flightless birds re-evolved flying ability in response to environmental factors.
~ By Meig Dickson
Sources under the Cut