Beasty Prehistoric Bird

SUMMERY
Paleontologists at Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution have discovered that Xenicibis, a species of Ibis that lived ten-thousand years ago, used their wings as weapons. Nicholas Longrich of Yale said, "No animal has ever evolved anything quite like this." It's the most specialized weapondry of birds the scientists have ever seen. The birds' bones in their wings are curved and thick and they use them like a flail to wack their opponents. Ibis birds are known to be territorial and fight over nesting ground. These birds evolved so well they could survive, even as the flightless birds they are, when there were many preditors on the ground for them.
OPINION
The article was obviously intresting enough that I read it entirely through. The entire time, I was trying to imagine what this bird would look like. The article described it's flailing like "swinging a baseball bat", but that's very difficult to imagine. Does that mean that one of the bones is attached so it can swivel it's arm? Obviously the "club wings" helped if the bird could survive against so many preditors, even for a short amount of time. And, what is the use of this new breakthrough, how will it benefit the general public?
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/01/05/prehistoric_bird_used_clublike_wings_as_weapon.html
Brittany Burns