NT: 200kg geece found in Central Australia
The remains of 200 kilogram geese that once waddled through central Australia havebeen unearthed in a rare archaeological find.
The giant flightless bird fossils, found only in Australia, have never before beendiscovered in such concentrations.
Northern Territory Museum paleontologist PETER MURRAY says his team has found a gaggleof about 10 birds in the Al Coota area, north-east of Alice Springs, in the past threeweeks.
He says they would have weighed 150-200kg each.
Their larger cousins, known as Dromornis Stirtoni, which weighed about 500kg, havebeen dug up around Australia for the past century.
But this find of two species of smaller giants - the tall, slender so-called IlbandornisLawsoni and the stockier Ilbandornis Woodburnei - is rare.
Dr MURRAY says anatomically they are virtually identical to geese.
He says it is not clear whether the birds died together or were washed together inthe sediment of a long-gone river.
AAP RTV rmg/wz/rp/psm/
KEYWORD: GEESE (DARWIN)
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