Unlocking the mystery of the demon-duck of doom - Unfolded

Could burn marks on eggshells explain the disappearance of the giant flightless bird Genyornis newtoni? This huge ostrich-sized “thunderbird” - nicknamed “the demon-duck of doom” for its huge head - disappeared from Australia’s fossil record around 50,000 years ago. The discovery of burned eggshells led scientists, including Gifford Miller of the University of Colorado, Boulder, to propose that their extinction was caused by early humans eating the bird’s eggs.

But the evidence was not clear cut. The burned eggshells seemed …

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