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Friday 11 April 2014

Thunderbird Skeleton?

Facebook Friend Sharon Day posted these photos of the partial skeleton of a very large bird (about the size of an ostrich) on her April 9th blog.

http://www.ghosthuntingtheories.com/2014/04/ancient-dinosaur-discovery-or.html

Ancient Dinosaur Discovery Or Thunderbird?

This bird-like/dinosaur-like skeleton was found in a Western US cave in 2006.  It was about a half mile into the cave within a very small crawlspace opening. They had some cans and bottles with them that they put out and proceeded to take photos. There was no way they were leaving the cave with this item. It had mineralized, part of the trachea was there and very brittle, some hide on it appears to still be on it. The finders did not really understand what they had found, but shared it with someone who recognized it was very unusual, MK Davis. MK was kind enough to share this with me to put out there for the public to puzzle over and see if anyone can identify what this was.

It was a large - what at the time looked like an ostrich sitting on its haunches, head missing, tail missing, upper arms missing and lower part of the hind leg articulation is missing....This is one of those mysteries that we hope to settle and I would seriously appreciate any input into what this was... Thank you Jim Heater, host of Paranormal Geeks Radio, for cleaning up the pics with this clearer version above.

A thank you to Bruce Hoch, who mentioned the lower legs and skull might have been taken by a shaman or tribe member long ago as trophies for the skull and claws or for powerful symbols. Very good. Keep the theories coming --




 From the size of the discarded can in the background, the body section would seem to be at least a yard long from the base of the neck to the tail. Thunderbird skeletons are indeed allegedly discovered from time to time, I can think of at least three such alleged discoveries from Sanderson's files that come to mind. But this is the first allegation that comes with any backup documentation.

The fact that you cannot see any wishbone either bothers me. Perhaps it was also removed. We could tell if the bird could fly or not if we had the wishbone.

It would seem that MK Davis is keeping the location of the cave a secret but it is a safe bet it is in the central Rocky Mountain area generally, possibly just North or South of that.
 

3 comments:

  1. That is interesting. The elongated hip area puts one in mind of a waterfowl. I googled swan skeletons and goose skeletons, but I don't think they match exactly. This specimen seems much more robust.

    The Rhea seems to have a long pelvic area like that as well, an adaptation to ground living I suppose. The skeletal reconstructions of the Teratorn that came up in a google image search on the other hand have very reduced pelvic bones compared to this. Check it out and see what you think.

    To be honest, looking at pictures of ostrich skeletons, I have to wonder if this isn't an ostrich after all. The ribs on this cave specimen are so thick even compared to the Rhea. Could a predator have dragged an ostrich from an ostrich ranch to feed? Or could a flood washed a dead or escaped ostrich from a ranch to this cave? On the other hand, maybe it was a Diatryma!

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  2. Is the MK Davis mentioned here the same MK Davis who did an analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot film and concluded that the subject in the film had a ponytail?

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  3. MK Davis is a video analyst on YouTube, and a Facebook Friend of mine. I do not necessarily endorse everything he says. Furthermore I do not believe that he has any training in Ornithology.

    In the current instance the bird might be a ratite (Ostrich like ground bird) but we need to have the breastbone clearly in view to know that for certain. Furthermore I am not aware of any ratites which were supposedly native to Pleistocene North America.

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