Image source: BBC/Emmanuel Lafont
Warning: This story contains some elements that may disturb readers.
When the meteorite that ended the dinosaurs hit the Earth, huge birds ruled the sky for millions of years. They were among the most powerful hunters of that time and humans also became their prey.
It happened about 28 lakh years ago. A three-year-old child of our ancient ancestors was wandering in the grasslands of South Africa. His teeth were just coming out.
This child of Australopithecus Africanus species did not know that someone was watching him from the sky.
Suddenly a huge bird of prey came down. He caught the child and killed him.
It is not known for sure which bird had eaten that child. He is now known as the "Taung Child".
But the deep marks found under his eyes are like the marks made by the claws of an eagle. Eagles often hunt in this manner. They keep some part of the prey on the tree and take the rest to their nest.
The secret of giant birds remained for millions of years
It was not easy to survive in the Stone Age. At that time, many huge animals lived around the early humans.
End
At that time, many huge animals lived around the early humans. These included large animals like elephants, other heavy-bodied creatures, wild cats with long sharp teeth, and huge birds that carried away babies.
Unlike birds, these giant birds ruled the skies for millions of years between the extinction of other dinosaurs and the beginning of the Great Ice Age.
It is believed that these birds also had a deep impact on the direction of human development. However, very little attention has been paid to this effect.
Some experts believe that the old stories of birds carrying away children may also be related to these huge birds. Birds became extinct, but the stories related to them persisted in many cultures of the world.
Where did these giant birds come from?
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When other dinosaurs other than birds disappeared from the earth, the sky became filled with dust. Most of the trees and plants were also destroyed.
Apart from seeds, there were very few things left for the animals to eat. But there were enough seeds for the birds.
Even the animals that used to hunt them were no longer there. Due to this, some small birds living on the ground and having beaks got a chance to grow. Gradually their size became very large.
Some of these birds used to eat trees and plants. Dromornithidae of Australia were one such bird. He is called the "Demon Ducks of Doom".
They looked like today's ducks, but were about 100 times larger and heavier than cows.
Some birds flew over the sea and started hunting. These included Pelagornis sandersii from South Carolina.
It is considered to be the largest flying bird ever. The distance between its two wings was seven meters.
Some other birds replaced the large ground-dwelling predators. After the extinction of large predatory dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, their place became vacant.
Where big animals are available for hunting, even bigger hunters start emerging. Our ancestors had to face these huge birds.
Clues of old attacks found from today's eagles
Scott McGrath, an expert on primates at Ohio State University in the United States, says, "Birds of prey have been around for as long as there have been primates."
Primates include humans, monkeys and other related creatures.
"Birds of prey have always hunted primates, including us and our relatives," says McGrath.
A glimpse of this old conflict between our ancestors and the giant birds is still visible in the forests.
McGrath examined the remains of more than 600 primates in the Tay forest of Ivory Coast. All of them were killed by other birds of prey including the African Crowned Eagle.
During the investigation, McGrath noticed that the marks found on the monkeys' skulls were similar to the marks found on the remains of the Taung Child.
In many skulls the lower part of the pit containing the eye bone was broken.
"The eagle had either taken out their eyes with its beak or tore them out with its claws," says McGrath.
He explains, "One of the people investigating our study went to the place where the remains of ancient creatures were kept. He took out the remains of the Taung Child and found that the damage done on both was exactly the same."
McGrath believes that birds of prey may have frequently eaten our human ancestors.
They also believe that the threat of becoming prey to birds may have played a big role in determining the direction of evolution of primates. Humans also fall in this group of primates.
He says, "If we now look carefully at the human remains collected over the years, there is a good chance that we will find more traces of attacks by birds of prey."
"Now we know what kind of traces we need to look for. If what we saw in the Tai forest is any indication, such attacks must have been common."
What changed in humans because of predatory birds?
Image source: Getty Images
James Cole, who studies ancient humans at Britain's Brighton University, says that the remains of ancient humans clearly show that early humans also became prey to other animals.
"Especially early human species, like the baby Australopithecus africanus that was eaten by an eagle," he says.
According to Cole, our early ancestors became food for many hunter-gatherers.
"There is no doubt that we were hunted," he says.
Apart from birds, leopards, hyenas and giant crocodiles also preyed on early humans. The need to escape from all this may have influenced the evolution of our ancestors.
It is believed that the threat of becoming prey to huge birds caused changes in our body and thinking.
For example, our ability to stand on two legs may have made it easier to spot predators from a distance.
Supporting each other, living together, being dependent on each other and protecting ourselves together must have been useful to our ancestors.
Cole says it became very important how many people were in the group. When the number of people in a group was large, security also increased.
McGrath says that it was better to live in large groups to avoid predatory birds.
Predators like lions and wolves chase their prey. But predatory birds often attack suddenly by hiding.
Eagles like the Crowned Eagle remain hidden among the trees and attack as soon as they get the right opportunity.
This indicates that the habit of living in groups among humans may have also been driven by the need to escape from predatory birds.
Several people in the group could keep an eye out in different directions and warn of a sudden attack. This is called the “many eyes effect” i.e. the effect of many people monitoring each other simultaneously.
Is the development of language also linked to this danger?
Cole says that living in large groups may also have helped in the development of language.
He says, "In a big group, people start doing different work. Some people do one work and the rest do some other work. For this it is necessary to create coordination among themselves."
"When a group of people start working in different places, coordination cannot be achieved just by looking at each other."
Cole says that to communicate with hand gestures it is necessary for people to be able to see each other.
But when something has to be communicated to a companion who is far away from sight, such as warning about the arrival of a hunter, then language is needed.
McGrath believes that trying to avoid danger from the sky may have also played a role in the beginning of the development of language.
Evidence suggests that most primates send similar warnings to different types of predators. For example, they may make similar sounds for a lion and a leopard.
But when they see birds of prey, they make a different and special sound.
According to McGrath, making different sounds in this way for a specific threat can be considered a form before the development of human language.
Giant birds rule America's skies
It is believed that most of the encounters between giant birds of prey and our human ancestors took place in the American continents.
Early humans in America may have encountered giant birds called Pteratorns.
These were meat-eating birds and could swallow their prey whole.
These birds looked like condors. The distance between their two wings was six meters. They also ate dead animals and also hunted.
Joan Cooper, senior curator of bird specimens at the Natural History Museum in London, says that these birds were so huge that they could fly only by opening their wings and with the help of rising air.
Terratorn ruled the sky for about 25 million years. They died out about 10 thousand years ago. By that time humans had reached the American continents.
Cooper says the "Thunderbird" stories may have started because of the Terratorn.
In the stories of the Native Americans, the Thunderbird's wings are described as very huge. It was believed that he could control thunder and lightning.
Aiolornis incredibilis was also known as the "Incredible Pteratorn". It had spread its fear in the areas of Southern California and Nevada. The distance between its two wings was five and a half meters.
Further north, Pteratornis woodburnensis was found in Oregon. The distance between its two wings was about four meters.
This huge bird flying in the sky lived about 12 thousand years ago.
Its remains have been found along with those of giant elephants such as mammoths and mastodons, giant ground sloths and early humans.
The story of the giant eagle carrying away children
On the other side of the world, the story of "Te Hokioi" is told among the Maori people in New Zealand.
According to the story, it was a huge eagle carrying away children.
Experts believe that this story may actually be related to the huge Haast's Eagle that once existed. Now this species is extinct.
Cooper says Haast's Eagle was "kind of a flying tiger."
Its weight was almost twice that of an adult harpy eagle. The harpy eagle is among the largest eagles in existence today.
Haast's eagle preyed on another large ground-dwelling bird called the moa. The length of Moa was about four meters.
The huge eagle came down rapidly. Due to its heavy weight, its speed increased further while coming down.
He would attack the victim's back with his 10 cm long claws and make him fall to the ground.
"We see these huge claw marks on the hip bones of some moa birds," Cooper says.
He says that Haast's eagle could attack humans in a similar manner.
She says, "The children must have been in danger. This sight must have been both amazing and very scary."
Perhaps this is why stories of birds carrying babies have endured for so long in Maori and North American cultures.
Such stories are also found in the old stories of Greece. The cranes did not deliver the children there, rather they stole them away.
Cooper says, "When these birds flew overhead, they cast long shadows. They left a similar long impression on cultures around the world."
Can eagles still carry babies today?
Eagles raising their children cannot just be a matter of ancient history.
In the 19th century, a news report from Tennessee, USA, mentions a child being taken away by a "giant brown eagle".
According to the news, the eagle came down quickly and stuck its huge claws in the little boy's clothes.
The eagle flew away with the child. A girl working in the house ran after him.
After going about two miles away, the bird put the child down for a while.
A hunter present nearby shouted loudly. Due to this the bird got scared and flew away.
The good thing was that the “healthy and rosy-faced” child was not injured.
Humans survived, giant birds became extinct
Overall, giant birds of prey ruled the skies for about five crore years.
Then about 26 lakh years ago the Earth reached the great ice age of the Pleistocene period.
During the Pleistocene there were very large and rapid changes in the Earth's climate. It is believed that these changes furthered the evolution of humans.
But by the end of this period, about 11,700 years ago, almost all large mammals and the largest birds of prey had become extinct.
Experts don't know for sure whether changing climate or human hunters were responsible for the extinction of these giant animals.
But as humans spread across the world and changed the natural system, up to 95 percent of the giant animals also became extinct.
"We were either trying to eat them or competing with them for things," Cooper says.
He believes that perhaps this explains the tension between humans and birds of prey, which still exists today.
"These birds fascinate us and we respect them, but we are not always happy to live with them," she says.
After the end of the Pleistocene period, the Earth's climate gradually began to stabilize.
Huge sheets of ice started retreating and humans started farming.
This was the beginning of a new era. Of the era of humans.
Published by Collective Newsroom for the BBC.
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