Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are an extinct clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were the largest species of apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era; their conventionally accepted temporal range covers from 62 to 1.8 million years (Ma) ago.

When did the last terror birds go extinct?

Even if the last terror bird became extinct around 1.8 million years ago, these were successful animals that, as a group, survived for more than 50 million years, some of them even taking on the mantle of top land predator in the ecosystems in which they lived.

Are ostriches terror birds?

The modern ratites such as the emu, ostrich and cassowary are just one line, and many families of waterfowl managed to do quite well as powerful terrestrial browsers in many parts of the world. The terror birds are related to the modern seriema, a relative of parrots, falcons and passerines.