The Bennu heron (''Ardea bennuides'') is an extinct, very large heron from what is now the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

at the eastern end of the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

Background

Found in 1977, remains of the heron have been dated to 2700–1800 BCE, coinciding with the Umm al-Nar period. Based on remains discovered, it was approximately tall and had a wingspan up to , thus surpassing the size of the largest living species in the heron family, the

goliath heron The Goliath heron (''Ardea goliath''), also known as the giant heron, is a very large wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa, with smaller, declining numbers in Southwest and South Asia. Description This ...

. It may have been the inspiration for the

Bennu Bennu is an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the Sun, creation, and rebirth. He may have been the original inspiration for the phoenix legends that developed in Greek mythology. Roles According to Egyptian mythology, Bennu was a self-create ...

deity in

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyp ...

, hence the specific name.

Range

It lived in what is now the

at the eastern end of the

and in Egypt.

Habitat

It lived in wetlands. It most likely preyed upon fish and small- to medium-sized organisms. Despite its large size there is no evidence that it preyed upon human beings.

Extinction

It went extinct because of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

degradation and another likely cause of their extinction would be humans overhunting their population.

References

Bennu heron The Bennu heron (''Ardea bennuides'') is an extinct, very large heron from what is now the United Arab Emirates at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Background Found in 1977, remains of the heron have been dated to 2700–1800 BCE, co ...

Birds of the Arabian Peninsula Extinct birds of Asia Holocene extinctions

Fossil taxa described in 1977 {{Pelecaniformes-stub