Where There’s Joy in a Terror Bird NYT | Top Stories By: Jennie Erin Smith and Federico Rios 4 November 2024 at 14:00 In Colombia, a fossil-collecting rancher has found a giant, flightless killer from 13 million years ago — and a missing link to the region’s evolutionary history. © Federico Rios for The New York TimesCésar Perdomo, a rancher and fossil hunter in Colombia’s Tatacoa Desert, with a terror bird fossil. Until his find, little was known about how these carnivores spread across the Americas millions of years ago.