Magnificent Mihirungs by Peter F. Murray and Patricia Vickers-Rich, Indiana University Press, $75, ISBN 0253342821 Reviewed by Jeff Hecht
MORE than 50 million years ago, a primal goose-like bird landed in Australia and decided that flying just wasn鈥檛 worth the effort. Its descendants evolved into flightless avian giants called mihirungs or Dromornithids, which survived until human hunters, fire and climate change dealt the final blow about 50,000 years ago. They may have been bigger than the moas of New Zealand and the elephant birds of Madagascar, but their island cousins outlived them.
One mihirung has been called the 鈥渄emon duck of doom鈥� because of its massive bill, but Peter Murray and Patricia Vickers-Rich tell us they probably were plant-eaters. They have amassed a wealth of evidence on the vanished giants, but much about them remains a mystery. Casual readers may be nearly as intimidated by the detailed evidence as they would be by a living mihirung. Magnificent Mihirungs is for the serious reader with a good knowledge of anatomy and a taste for paleontological puzzles.
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