Titanis walleri claw

This is a a claw core of a Phorusrhacid, a giant flightless, predatory bird, named Titanis walleri. This bird, called a "Terror Bird" in the popular press, is known from a very limited number of Pliocene sites in Florida and Texas.

Phorusrhacids are South American in origin, moving into North America in the great faunal interchange via the Pliocene land bridge. Estimates of the size of Titanis walleri vary from six to more than 10 feet tall.

Titanis walleri was described in 1964 from some fossils found by Ben Waller in the Santa Fe River in North Florida. All the known fossils of this bird could be held in your two hands.