Scientists Uncover the Mystery of the Extinct Giant Crane
The question of the systematic affiliation of the extinct large crane that inhabited Europe around 20,000 years ago has been a subject of scientific debate for the past 150 years. Ancient DNA extracted from the bird's bones has finally provided an answer. It turns out that the crane did not go extinct but simply shrank in size.
In 1871, French biologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards described a previously unknown species of extinct giant crane named Grus primigenia. The fossilized bones of this bird, which were significantly larger than those of modern crane species, were found in late Pleistocene deposits in several caves in southern France. The age of the finds corresponds to the end of the last Ice Age (approximately 20,000 — 11,700 years ago).
Read this article in full and everything else in Telegram, ad-free
Open in TelegramThanks, I just want to finish reading here
A team of international researchers led by John Stewart, a professor of evolutionary paleoecology at Bournemouth University (UK), concluded that there was never a Grus primigenia. As established by the scientists, whose article was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, these bones actually belonged to larger specimens of the modern gray crane — the same species that is found in Europe today.
Analysis of the ancient DNA extracted from 18 bone samples allowed for accurate species identification: all samples belonged to Grus grus. Among these ancient birds were both individuals larger than modern gray cranes and those whose sizes correspond to contemporary representatives of the species.
Researchers suggested that the reduction in size of the gray crane is linked to climate change and/or anthropogenic landscape transformation, but this remains speculative.
