Jive Turkey And The Non Traditional Thanksgiving Day Post.
Entry posted by newbloodmoon in Holiday blog
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Tired of listening to that one crazy Uncle’s political and religious tirades? How about the conspiratorial cousin going on about Illuminati lizard aliens infiltrating the governments around the world to enslave us by putting fluoride in the water? Got an aunt who claims she has proof that scientists are turning frogs gay? If so then they need to come to UM, but if it’s a break your looking forward too than here’s a non traditional blog for the Thanksgiving ‘holiday’.
Instead of turkeys here we will discuss prehistoric birds before getting in to the UM goodies like birds of myth and legend. So enjoy this relatively turkey free day.
Terror bird or Phorusrhacidae.
Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are an extinctfamily of large carnivorous flightless birds that were among the largest apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era; their conventionally accepted temporal range covers from 53 to 0.1 million years (Ma) ago.[1]
They ranged in height from 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft). Their closest modern-day relatives are believed to be the 80-centimetre-tall (31 in) seriemas. Titanis walleri, one of the larger species, is known from Texas and Florida in North America. This makes the phorusrhacids the only known large South American predator to migrate north in the Great American Interchange that followed the formation of the Isthmus of Panama land bridge (the main pulse of the interchange began about 2.6 Ma ago; Titanis at 5 Ma was an early northward migrant).[3]
Another predatory bird of the past is the Gastornis, an equally terror of a bird that once existed.
Gastornis is an extinct genus of large flightless birds that lived during the mid Paleocene to mid Eocene epochs of the Paleogene period. Fossils have been found in Europe, Asia and North America, with the remains from North America originally assigned to the genus Diatryma.
Gastornis species were very large birds, and have traditionally been considered to be predators of small mammals. However, several lines of evidence, including the lack of hooked claws in known Gastornis footprints and studies of their beak structure and isotopic signatures of their bones have caused scientists to reinterpret these birds as herbivores that probably fed on tough plant material and seeds. Gastornis is generally agreed to be related to Galloanserae, the group containing waterfowl and gamebirds.
Other prehistoric birds include but not limited to, are the Moa from New Zealand, the sea bird Pelagornis, Elephant bird from Madagascar, Teratornis from the Americas, and the Argentavis from Argentina.
Lets move on to a few birds that would fit in quite nicely here at Unexpected Mysteries, the Roc, phoenix, and the Thunder Bird.
Though not birds the honorary mention are the pterosaurs, the true Jive Turkys of the avian world… cause, well you know, as mentioned at the beginning of the sentence, they’re not birds.
Todays pterosaur is Quetzalcoatlus, for size comparison see below.
Now that’s one hell of a drumstick, I wonder how long it would take to eat through that? And now to the mythology portion of the blog with the Phoenix , Roc and the Thunder Birds.
Phoenix
The phoenix is an immortal bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again. While it's part of Greek mythology, it has analogs in many cultures such as Egyptian and Persian. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by rising from the ashes of its predecessor. Some legends say it dies in a show of flames and combustion, others that it simply dies and decomposes before being born again.[1] In the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, a tool used by folklorists, the phoenix is classified as motif B32.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(mythology)
Bonus: the Fenghuang of China.
Fenghuang, Wade-Giles romanizationfeng-huang, also called feng or (misleadingly) Chinese phoenix, in Chinese mythology, an immortal bird whose rare appearance is said to be an omen foretelling harmony at the ascent to the throne of a new emperor.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/fenghuang
Roc
The roc is an enormous legendary bird of prey in the popular mythology of the Middle East.
The roc appears in Arab geographies and natural history, popularized in Arabian fairy tales and sailors' folklore. Ibn Battuta tells of a mountain hovering in the air over the China Seas, which was the roc.[1] The story collection One Thousand and One Nights includes tales "Abd al-Rahman the Maghribi's Story of the Rukh" and "Sinbad the Sailor", both of which include the roc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roc_(mythology)
The image of a giant bird flying off with an elephant was my first exposure to the Roc as it was my Junior High Schools mascot. I looked it up and I couldn’t find any old pictures of the school logo so I won’t be able to post it here.
Last but not least we will do a dive in to the Thunder Bird.
The thunderbird is a legendary creature in particular North American indigenous peoples' history and culture. It is considered a supernatural being of power and strength.
It is especially important and frequently depicted in the art, songs, and oral histories of many Pacific Northwest Coastcultures, but is also found in various forms among some peoples of the American Southwest, East Coast of the United States, Great Lakes, and Great Plains. In modern times it has achieved notoriety as a purported cryptid, similar to creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbird_(mythology)
Growing up in the Pacific NW, I was quite accustomed to seeing the Thunder bird as the featured animal on a totem poles (above) and other indigenous art (below). Other popular animals were bears, beavers, ravens, and the occasional Sasquatch.
I hope this blog will be a helpful distraction at your family thanksgiving dinner if politics and religion are often discussed. Who knows, you might be able to steer the conversation elsewhere with the helpful prompts found within.
Edited by newbloodmoon
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