The Legendary Thunderbird Photo

[Ogdred Weary]

I saw the Thunderbird photo in The Beano.

 

[maximus otter]

I saw the Thunderbird photo in The Beano.

maximus otter

 

[Swifty]

I saw the Thunderbird photo in The Beano.

I assume you're joking?.

 

[Trevp666]

This is the sort of 'Thunderbird photo' that I like.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

The FreakyLinks photos were deliberately meant to reference the already established thunderbird photo "memories".

I remember reading about the thunderbird photo in the 1970s or so. Unless that is a false memory!

But back in the 70s was anyone claiming it was a pterosaur, or was it a huge bird resembling this sketch?

 

[Trevp666]

As I remember the pic I saw, it was a line of slightly dishevelled guys in full, dark coloured suits, all wearing hats, probably about ten of 'em (not ten hats, ten guys), stood outdoors, outside of a building, with the bird laid down on the floor in front of them, with it's wings stretching across the picture, but the photo was taken in poor light so it all looked rather dark.
Probably a bit like this.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

I assume you're joking?.

Yeah.

It was obviously Whizzer and Chips.

 

[TangletwigsDeux]

Yeah.

It was obviously Whizzer and Chips.

Or The Eagle

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Or The Eagle

Now you're just being silly.

 

[Trevp666]

Are we absolutely sure it wasn't in a 'Dorling Kindersley' book?

 

[Swifty]

Yeah.

It was obviously Whizzer and Chips.

I saw it in Razzle.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

I saw it in Razzle.

Highly likely, apparently that periodical had a distinctly ornithological bent and featured a lot of tits and boobies.

 

[dannycheveaux1]

As I remember the pic I saw, it was a line of slightly dishevelled guys in full, dark coloured suits, all wearing hats, probably about ten of 'em (not ten hats, ten guys), stood outdoors, outside of a building, with the bird laid down on the floor in front of them, with it's wings stretching across the picture, but the photo was taken in poor light so it all looked rather dark.
Probably a bit like this.
View attachment 64143

As I remember it, the massive bird (not a pterosaur) was attached to the outside of the barn

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

As I remember it, the massive bird (not a pterosaur) was attached to the outside of the barn

That's another mystery I would like answering; when did the Thunderbird, which in American Indian folklore (and totem pole carvings) was always a huge bird with obvious feathers, get conflated with pterosaurs?

 

[Trevp666]

when did

It was a Thursday afternoon in July, at about 2.45.

 

[oxo66]

This came up in today's Quora.
It's a model recreation of Teratornitis - a gigantic condor-like bird thought to have gone extinct around the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary (around 11,500 years ago). So it certainly overlapped with human occupation of North America and I agree that this is one of the most likely candidates to have inspired the Thunderbird legend.

View attachment 63111

Apologies for the diversion, but I think that model is actually of Argentavis that came, as the name suggests, from South America. It went extinct well before humans came along ( I suppose that should be "it is believed to have gone extinct"). The late Pleistocene species of teratorns were somewhat less thunderous with wingspans up to 5 metres or so.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Apologies for the diversion, but I think that model is actually of Argentavis that came, as the name suggests, from South America. It went extinct well before humans came along ( I suppose that should be "it is believed to have gone extinct"). The late Pleistocene species of teratorns were somewhat less thunderous with wingspans up to 5 metres or so.

Don't think there's a huge amount to choose between the reconstructions of Teratornis:

... and Argentavis:

But Teratornis definitely overlapped with human occupation of the Americas, as its demise appears to have been partly due to hunting by humans:

https://prehistoric-wiki.fandom.com...tion,cycles which altered aquatic vertebrates.

 

[oxo66]

Don't think there's a huge amount to choose between the reconstructions of Teratornis:

View attachment 64173

... and Argentavis:

View attachment 64174

But Teratornis definitely overlapped with human occupation of the Americas, as its demise appears to have been partly due to hunting by humans:

https://prehistoric-wiki.fandom.com/wiki/Teratornis#:~:text=in the asphalt.-,Extinction,cycles which altered aquatic vertebrates.

So many species! The one at that link, Teratornis merriami, is the best documented one, where complete skeletons have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits. It went extinct around 10,000 years ago. That link has stats probably taken from wikipedia of 15 kg and 3.8m wingspan so (again quoting wikipedia) "about a third bigger than extant condors".

Wikipedia also lists Aiolornis incredibilis as known from fragmentary remains and "uniformly about 40% larger [than Teratornis merriami] so up to 23 kilograms and a wingspan of 5.5 metres".

Argentavis magnificens is often listed as 7m wingspan but a much more massive 70-80kg. This fits the much broader-winged shape of the museum reconstruction.

oxo

 

[Tunn11]

Argentavis and Teratornis are part of the same family Teratornithidae.

Wiki entry looks pretty accurate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teratornithidae

 

[Enigma]

I saw the Thunderbird photo in The Beano.

I always knew Gnasher was up to something, shooting thunderbirds I see!

Wanted to chime in here, Im also looking for it but dont remember it myself. I am currently searching the readers digest books, have checked a few but am missing some. So if anyone here can check their books, readers digest and others, and let me know what books, then that would be a massive help!

Lets do a mass book search, if we get enough eyes and throw together a table of searched books we might have better luck and an ‘easier’ search.