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Rare fossil of 25-million-year-old eagle that hunted koalas found in South Australia - CNN
Sep 27, 2021 51 secs
The newly discovered species, Archaehierax sylvestris, is one of the oldest eagle-like raptors in the world, according to a study published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal, Historical Biology.

Paleontologists from Adelaide's Flinders University unearthed the fossil in March 2016 on a remote outback cattle station during a research trip at Lake Pinpa in South Australia.

Archaehierax is the largest eagle known to have lived in Australia during the Oligocene period, which dates back about 33.9 million to 23 million years ago, the study said.

"The largest marsupial predators at the time were about the size of a small dog or large cat, so Archaehierax was certainly ruling the roost," Ellen Mather, author of the study and Flinders University postdoctoral candidate, said in a statement.

The partial fossil skeleton is comprised of 63 bones, making Archaehierax sylvestris one of the best preserved species found around Lake Pinpa.

Trevor Worthy, associate professor at Flinders University and co-author of the study, said in the statement that it is rare to find even one bone from a fossil eagle.

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