Bird with the biggest pecks
QUESTION Is the ostrich the largest bird ever to walk the Earth?
Ostriches can grow up to 9ft and weigh up to 23st. however, they are small compared with some of the giant birds that once walked the planet — the Mihirungs of Australia, the Giant Moa of New Zealand and the elephant Bird of Madagascar.
the Giant Moas were the tallest. the North island Giant Moa ( Dinornis
novaezealandiae) and south island Giant Moa ( Dinornis robustus), which were distantly related to the kiwi, reached 12ft and weighed 36st.
they roamed the forests of New Zealand until 500 years ago when the Maori arrived and hunted them to extinction.
however, there have been Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster-like ‘ sightings’. the last reported case was in 1993 and described a creature that was ‘7ft, with reddish-brown feathers covering the body down to the knees’.
Fossil discoveries in the Australian Outback revealed a very different bird known to the Aborigines as Mihirungs. the biggest of these was Dromornis
stirtoni, which was almost 10ft and weighed more than 100st.
Dromornis stirtoni roamed the subtropical woodlands of what is now the Northern territory 15 million years ago. Originally thought to be cousins of emus and cassowaries, analysis of their anatomy suggests they are most closely related to modern-day geese.
elephant birds are members of the extinct ratite family Aepyornithidae, comprising the genera Mullerornis,
Vorombe and Aepyornis. these massive flightless birds roamed the island of Madagascar off Africa. they became extinct around 1000 to 1200 AD.
While they were not far geographically from the ostrich, their closest living relatives are kiwi, suggesting an ancestor that could fly.
in 1894, British palaeontologist c. W. Andrews discovered fossils of a massive species which he called Aepyornis titan, but this was widely dismissed at the time. Relatively small: The modern ostrich however, last year researchers from the Zoological society of London, having compared Aepyornithidae fossils from museums around the world, concluded that Andrews was right. they proclaimed a new species,
Vorombe titan, to be the largest bird of all time at almost 10ft and weighing an incredible 114st.
Mike Jess, Spalding, Lincs.
QUESTION Which state has produced the most U.S. Presidents?
ALL 44 U.s. presidents have come from just 21 states. Four states — Virginia, Ohio, New York and Massachusetts — have produced more than half of America’s leaders. And 29 states haven’t produced any presidents, but most of these are in the West and didn’t exist when the country was founded.
eight presidents have come from Virginia: George Washington, thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William henry harrison, John tyler, Zachary taylor and Woodrow Wilson.
Ohio has had seven: Ulysses s. Grant, rutherford B. hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin harrison, William McKinley, William howard taft and Warren G. harding. New York produced five: Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, theodore roosevelt, Franklin D. roosevelt and current incumbent Donald trump.
Massachusetts has had four: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy and George h. W. Bush.
North carolina has had two, James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson; as has texas, with Dwight D. eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson; and Vermont, with chester A. Arthur and calvin coolidge.
south carolina has had one: Andrew Jackson, as has New hampshire, with Franklin Pierce; Pennsylvania, James Buchanan; Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln; New Jersey, Grover cleveland; iowa, herbert hoover; Missouri, harry s. truman; california, richard Nixon; Nebraska, Gerald Ford; Georgia, Jimmy carter; illinois, ronald reagan; Arkansas, Bill clinton; connecticut, George W. Bush; and hawaii, Barack Obama.
Mark Blackman, Manchester.
QUESTION Was H. G. Wells being ironic when he described World War I as ‘the war that will end war’?
KNOWN for his novels the War Of the Worlds, the invisible Man and the time Machine, h. G. Wells ( 1866- 1946) predicted many technological advances for the 20th century, including the motor car, the aeroplane, satellite tV and the atomic bomb.
his ‘war that will end war’ was a serious idea. Wells had looked on in horror at the build-up of German military might since 1871 and concluded the only way to stop it was total annihilation.
in 1914, he published the War that Will end War, which stated: ‘every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. this, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war — it is the last war!’
But even during the war the phrase was met with scepticism. David Lloyd George said: ‘this war, like the next war, is a war to end war.’
Ultimately, Wells parodied his own phrase in his 1932 novel the Bulpington Of Blup: ‘the war to end war — that’s the magic phrase that has befuddled Father.
‘he thinks that when we’ve smashed that fleet of theirs and massacred their infantry and taken those Krupp guns and all that, Lloyd George and King George and the tzar and the French and the bankers and munition makers are going to sit down together in a friendly conference, pool their flags and crowns, finish all that the 18th century left undone and inaugurate the Millennium.’
Kathleen Hall, Reading, Berks.
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