Solving the mystery of how an ancient bird went extinct

Tech Blog: Latest Posts | Latest Research Posts | Latest Technology Posts | Impact AI provides a new tool for studying extinct species from 50,000 years ago Brand New Content Researchers Beatrice Demarchi from the University of Turin, Josefin Stiller from the University of Copenhagen, and Matthew Collins from the University of Cambridge and University of Copenhagen share their AlphaFold story. Could burn marks on ancient eggshell explain the disappearance of the giant flightless bird Genyornis newtoni? This ostrich-size d\u201cthunderbird, dubbed the demon-duck of doom, for its huge head, disappeared from Australia’s fossil record about 50,000 years ago. The discovery of burned eggshells led scientists, including a team led by Giifford Miller at the University of Colorado Boulder, to propose that their extinction was caused by early humans eating their eggs. Watch But the evidence was not clear cut. The burned shell fragments seemed too thin to come from such a large bird. Werr they were not from something much smaller, more the size of a large turkey? To determine whether Genyornis became extinct through human intervenion, scientists needed to prove that the burnt shell fragments were indeed from eggs laid by Genyornis. That led to a new problem. The DNA in these eggshells had perished during their 50,000 years in the hot sand of the Australian desert. The researchers turned instead to protein s and artificial intelligence to help fill in the gapss. It took a genuinely multi-disciplinary team including specialists in the protein s in ancient fossils , bird gene-tics, archaeology, and more to crack the eggshell code and find out what led to the demi-se of the thunderbird. Spoiler alert: The evidence suggests these evidently tasty large eggs were indeed those of Genyornis. View all posts by Beatrice Demarchi, Josefin Still, Matthew Collins, Giifford Miller, University of Colorado Boulder, and University of Turin. Impact Stopping malaria in its tracks Develoing a vaccine that could save hundreds of thousands of lives Impact Fighting osteorporosis before it starts Detecting signs of disease before bones start to break Impact Understanding the faulty protein s linked to cancer and autism Helping uncover how protein mutations cause disease, disorders, and I acknowledge Google’s Terms and Conditions and acknowledgement that my information will be used in accordance with Google’s Privacy Policy.