page_title: Largest prehistoric animals
section_title: Accipitriforms (Accipitriformes)
hierarchical_section_title: Largest prehistoric animals / Vertebrates / Birds (Aves) / Accipitriforms (Accipitriformes)
caption_attribution_description: English: Giant Haast's eagle attacking New Zealand moa Français&#160;: Exemple de co-extinction&#160;: Aigle géant de Haast attaquant des Moas de Nouvelle-Zélande&#160;; l'extinction des moas suite à leur chasse (surprédation) par l'homme a entrainé la disparition de cette espèces d'aigle.
context_page_description: The largest prehistoric organisms include both vertebrate and invertebrate species. Many of them are described below, along with their typical range of size. Many species mentioned might not actually be the largest representative of their clade due to the incompleteness of the fossil record and many of the sizes given are merely estimates since no complete specimen have been found. Their body mass, especially, is mostly conjecture because soft tissue was rarely fossilized. Generally the size of extinct species was subject to energetic and biomechanical constraints.
context_section_description: The largest-known bird of prey ever was the enormous Haast's eagle (Harpagornis moorei), with a wingspan of 2.6 to 3 m (8 ft 6 in to 9 ft 10 in), relatively short for their size. Total length was probably up to 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) in female and they weighed about 10 to 15 kg (22 to 33 lb). The largest extinct Titanohierax was a giant hawk about 8 kilograms that lived in the Antilles, where it was among the top predators.
caption: Haast's eagle, the largest bird of prey, attacking moa
exif: {}