Cassowaries are large flightless birds native to New Guinea and Northern Australia. They are said to be the "world's deadliest bird" because they can inflict fatal injuries with a roundhouse kick when provoked.
Despite their viciousness, scientists recently learned that ancient humans tried to farm them about up to 18,000 years ago, way before humans started raising chickens. Scientists said this discovery has "enormous implications" for human history.
A Cassowary is seen inside its enclosure at Wildlife Rescue Centre Jogja on January 22, 2021 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)
Ancient Humans May Have Been Using Stone tools Before the Stone Age
When humans started using tools to advance and transform the way they interacted with the world around 2.6 million years ago, it started the Stone Age. According to Daily Express, this era saw an acceleration of the evolution of the hominin, the only species that still lives today being the homo sapiens (humans).
Scientists found evidence of stone tools from fossilized bones with bone marks, suggesting that hominins may have used some stone tools even before the Stone Age started. Analyses of the tools showed that they dated back 3.4 million years ago and were found in the Lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, the advent of metalworking marked the beginning of the Bronze Age and the end of the Stone Age. Scientists noted that despite knowing a wealth of knowledge about ancient humans, it is difficult to know how they went about their lives. But new research offers a unique glimpse into their lives as researchers found evidence in New Guinea that humans once raised cassowaries before they learned to farm chickens.
Raising the World's Deadliest Bird
In the study titled, "Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Sites in the Montane Forests of New Guinea Yield Early Record of Cassowary Hunting and Egg Harvesting," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers wrote that ancient humans raised the territorial, and aggressive cassowaries about 18,000 years ago.
Archaeologist Kristina Douglass said in the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) press release that this behavior came before the domestication of chickens. He noted that this is not some tiny bird because cassowaries are large, flightless birds that can eviscerate anyone that threatens it. A dwarf version probably weighs 44 pounds (20 kilograms).
Smithsonian Magazine reported that researchers excavated two rock-shelters in New Guinea and found over 1,000 fragments of fossilized eggshells of cassowaries. Upon analysis using 3D imaging, computer modeling, egg morphology, and carbon dating, they estimated that the eggshells are about 6,000 to 18,000 years old. It is thousands of years before they started domesticating chickens about 9,500 years ago.
Scientists hypothesized that ancient humans may have eaten them as balut, an Asian street food still eaten today, as they were harvested and eaten at the late stage. However, not all of them have burn marks. That means many of them have been raising young cassowaries to adulthood.
When the eggs crack, young cassowaries imprint on the first adult bird or person they see. Scientists are unsure what purpose ancient humans had for the birds, although their feather is still collected for ceremonial wear and their meat is considered a delicacy in New Guinea.
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