10 Terrifying Creatures That You’ll Be Glad Are Extinct
4. Giant Birds of Prey
One of the great things about living in the 21st century, is that one rarely has to worry about being plucked from the ground by enormous, fearsome birds of prey. Argentavis magnificens, with its seven metre wingspan, is one of the largest flying birds ever known and is more akin to a light aircraft than something that would frequent the birdbath in your garden.
The ancient Argentavis magnificens may never have posed much of a threat to us, having lived over six million years ago, but there is another gigantic bird of prey that could well have developed a taste for, squishy, easy-to-pick-up humans.
Haast's Eagle is a species of giant eagle that lived on the South Island of New Zealand. Whilst its wingspan was not quite as impressive as Argentavis, this 16kg eagle was still knocking around as recently as 1400, putting it well within stealing-your-firstborn range of humans.