4 ms·

Maori legend of man-eating bird is true

14 points by ptn 17y ago

biohacker42 17y ago
It's amazing that this eagle most likely descended from the Australian little eagle. Imagine if Steller's Sea Eagles had made it to NZ. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Stellers_Sea_Eagle_with_Man.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Stellers_...
- science4sail 17y ago
  The problem is that ecological niche is a better determiner of size than ancestry...
  - biohacker42 17y ago
    Sure. But evolution prefers to reuse rather then innovate, this can often lead to interesting limits. For example, we still have a blind spot where the optic nerve connects to the retina, in all this time we have not evolved a blind spot free eye. Thus I was wondering if there are some odd limitations in how big, how quickly a little eagle can evolve, vs what the giant raptors could do. It was basically evolutionary fan.fic.
astine 17y ago
Why does the article present this as some kind of news? We've known of Haast's eagle for years and it's connection to the Maori legend is common knowledge among anyone who's heard of the bird. (Still cool though.)
- charltones 17y ago
  If I read it correctly, the article is implying that recent scientific study of the strength of the bird's pelvis has shown that the bird was likely to have been strong enough to make killer blows and crush prey (backing up the Maori legend) rather than just scavenge like a vulture.
  - astine 17y ago
    I that's the case the headline should mention that, or they should be clearer in the article about what this means for our understanding of the bird. The article seemed to suggest that the Haast's eagle was a recent discovery.
  - pmichaud 17y ago
    That isn't a new discovery either. I've spent a great deal of time studying New Zealand and Māori culture and history specifically (so much that I actually changed my keyboard layout to Māori so I could write in the language)... this is old news. Like, generations old. Edit: Here's my fairly old page about this very topic: http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/research/mythical-creatures/pouakai/ http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/research/mythical-creatures/p... They have a legend about the "Pouakai" that people have thought for a long time was the eagle. That old link proves this is old news (or maybe I broke the story first without realizing 8)

14 points by ptn 17y ago

It's amazing that this eagle most likely descended from the Australian little eagle. Imagine if Steller's Sea Eagles had made it to NZ. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Stellers_Sea_Eagle_with_Man.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Stellers_...

science4sail 17y ago
The problem is that ecological niche is a better determiner of size than ancestry...
- biohacker42 17y ago
  Sure. But evolution prefers to reuse rather then innovate, this can often lead to interesting limits. For example, we still have a blind spot where the optic nerve connects to the retina, in all this time we have not evolved a blind spot free eye. Thus I was wondering if there are some odd limitations in how big, how quickly a little eagle can evolve, vs what the giant raptors could do. It was basically evolutionary fan.fic.

astine 17y ago

Why does the article present this as some kind of news? We've known of Haast's eagle for years and it's connection to the Maori legend is common knowledge among anyone who's heard of the bird. (Still cool though.)

charltones 17y ago
If I read it correctly, the article is implying that recent scientific study of the strength of the bird's pelvis has shown that the bird was likely to have been strong enough to make killer blows and crush prey (backing up the Maori legend) rather than just scavenge like a vulture.
- astine 17y ago
  I that's the case the headline should mention that, or they should be clearer in the article about what this means for our understanding of the bird. The article seemed to suggest that the Haast's eagle was a recent discovery.
- pmichaud 17y ago
  That isn't a new discovery either. I've spent a great deal of time studying New Zealand and Māori culture and history specifically (so much that I actually changed my keyboard layout to Māori so I could write in the language)... this is old news. Like, generations old. Edit: Here's my fairly old page about this very topic: http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/research/mythical-creatures/pouakai/ http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/research/mythical-creatures/p... They have a legend about the "Pouakai" that people have thought for a long time was the eagle. That old link proves this is old news (or maybe I broke the story first without realizing 8)