by Demand:
A viral photo shows the claws of a real, giant bird.
Rating:
On May 25, 2024, a photo went viral on X that allegedly showed the foot of a giant, dinosaur-like bird. “A Southern Cassowary claw. In case you didn’t think birds were dinosaurs,” read the caption on the post, which had more than 15.9 million views as of this writing.
Google reverse image search results showed that the photo was also shared on 9GAG, Instagram and Reddit. “The bottom of the Southern Male Cassowary, the most dangerous bird in the world, sports huge claws that could disembowel a fully grown man,” read one post.
In short, because the viral photo showed the claw of a southern male cassowary, we’ve rated this claim as “True.”
The photo was first shared on January 15, 2019, by Sarah Davis, who was a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin at the time. “Holding the claws of a male southern cassowary… In case any of your friends are still convinced that 🐦 = 🦖! ,” she wrote, adding the hashtag #birdsaredinosaurs.
In later posts, Davis said the bird “died of natural causes after a long, healthy life. It is now being used to study avian anatomy, color and plumage as part of multiple graduate research projects.” She also wrote that “cassowaries are native to Papua New Guinea and Australia, and eat fruit. But, that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to use those impressive claws…”
I feel very humbled to be able to work with such an amazing bird. Cassowaries are native to Papua New Guinea and Australia, and they eat fruit. But, that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to use those amazing claws…
— Sarah Davis (@PaleoFeathers) January 16, 2019
In January 2019, the popular science website Live Science published an article on the subject, titled “Why This Enormous, Scaly Foot Looks Like It’s from a Dinosaur,” which included comments from Davis on the viral photo. Davis told Live Science that she studied “avian and Nonavian dinosaurs, and by analyzing modern birds it provides valuable insight into the anatomy of extinct dinosaurs”:
For this project, Davis and other students were dissecting the hammer to compare its anatomy with that of other flightless birds, “especially ostriches and emus,” described in published studies, she said.
“In this case, we’re only looking at closely related species and looking for subtle differences in their legs,” Davis said. Cassowaries, ostriches and emus are all flightless, but their lineages have lost the ability to fly independently. Clues to those different evolutionary paths could be held in minor changes in their leg muscles. “Those differences are what we’re looking for,” she said.
…
“Cassowaries will not hesitate to kick animals – and people – if they think they are threatening them, and the claw is a very effective tool for self-defense,” said Davis.
The exceptional size and pressure of the foot also had a “very dinosaur feel” – a perception Davis wanted to share, she said.
Davis also said she wanted her job with the picture to “spark people’s curiosity about the relationship between dinosaurs and birds,” adding that “birds are living dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs we see today are just as interesting as those that became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.”
Researchers have discovered that today’s birds, specifically the theropods, are descendants of dinosaurs.
“The birds that fill the skies of the world today are living dinosaurs, reminders of a distant and strange past. The decades of great new discoveries and studies have convinced researchers that there is a direct link between modern bird species and theropod dinosaurs,” according to London’s Natural History Museum. “Many features and behaviors have also been found that are characteristic of living birds in their dinosaur ancestors. Perhaps the greatest surprise was the discovery of dinosaurs with feathers. It completely changed the scientific community’s perception of their appearance and behavior .”
Many articles about the southern cassowary draw attention to the bird’s hooves.
Encyclopedia Britannica wrote that the southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) lives on New Guinea, on the nearby islands and on Australia: “The cassowary has been known to kill people by blowing its legs, because it has a long dagger nail on the inside.”
Similarly, the Australian Queensland Government website warned that “southern cassowary behavior is unpredictable. Cassowaries can cause serious injuries to people and pets by kicking with their large clawed feet.”
“They are most active at dawn, have a claw that rivals Freddy Krueger, and are one of the few bird species that have killed humans – but don’t write off this flightless cousin of the AEA as a nightmare,” he Read World Wildlife Fund article on the subject. “Unprovoked, cassowaries are relatively shy and peaceful, and they play an important role in their tropical forest ecosystem.”
Below you can see a photo of a female southern cassava on the beach in Etty Bay, Queensland:
(Getty Images)
This is not the first time we have fact-checked a bird-related claim. For example, in April 2024, we investigated whether owl chicks sleep face down because their heads are too heavy. In July 2022 we removed a false claim that waxwings die when their mates die.
Sources:
Hammer | Description, Size, & Facts | Britannica. 10 May 2024, https://www.britannica.com/animal/cassowary.
“The Southern Cassowary.” Australian Museum, https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/southern-cassowary/australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/southern-cassowary/ . Accessed 29 May 2024.
—. “The Dinosaurs Lived.” Australian Museum, https://australian.museum/learn/dinosaurs/the-living-dinosaurs/australian.museum/learn/dinosaurs/the-living-dinosaurs/ . Accessed 29 May 2024.
Mindy Weisberger. “Why This Huge, Scaly Croup Looks Like It’s From A Dinosaur.” Livescience.Com26 Jan. 2019, https://www.livescience.com/64600-cassowary-foot-photo.html.
Queensland;, c=AU; o=State. Southern Cassowary | Living with Wildlife. https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/plants-animals/animals/living-with/southern-cassowary. Accessed 29 May 2024.
