Giant prehistoric chicken species identified from Flores cave fossil

Scientists have identified Megapodius rokusi, an extinct giant megapode, from a single leg bone found in Liang Bua cave on Flores — the same site that yielded the 'hobbit.' The bird weighed an estimated 3.9 kilograms, far larger than its living relatives. The fossil, described in Alcheringa, dates to roughly 190,000–120,000 years ago and is the first megapode fossil described from Wallacea.