page_title: Brontornis
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Brontornis / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Size comparison between the terror birds Brontornis (2.8 metres) and Kelenken (here assumed to be about 3 meters tall, actual size is disputed) Nederlands: Vergelijking tussen de grootte van de schrikvogels Brontornis (2,8 meter) en Kelenken (hier 3 meter, de eigenlijke grootte staat niet vast)
context_page_description: Brontornis is an extinct genus of either anseriforms or giant flightless terror birds that inhabited Argentina during the Early to Middle Miocene. Certainly the biggest of the Phorusrhacidae family, it is the largest bird known from the Americas and one of the largest that has ever existed.
context_section_description: Brontornis had an estimated height of 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) and its body mass is estimated between 350 and 400 kg (770 and 880 lb). It must have been
  about 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) tall at the back. These measures would make Brontornis the fifth-heaviest bird found thus far, after Vorombe titan, Dromornis stirtoni and Aepyornis maximus, and Pachystruthio dmanisensis.
  A comparison of the tarsometatarsi of two B. burmeisteri specimens, FM-P13259 and MLP-91 (lectotype), both coming from the same geographical region and geological formation, shows them as not to present any anatomical differences, apart from size, where in the first is around one third smaller than the second. The idea is that they are examples of intraspecific variation, possibly sexual dimorphism. There is the possibility that they represent two species.
caption: Size comparison of Brontornis (red), Kelenken (yellow) and a human
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