Prehistoric bird used clublike wings as a weapon

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/01/05/prehistoric_bird_used_clublike_wings_as_weapon.html

Summary – This article is about how scientists have recently discovered the use of wings for a ten thousand year old flightless bird. The bird, Xenicibis, had a wing structure that had previously baffled the paleontologists because of its build, which was unlike any wing structure of other birds. It turns out that the thick hand bones were used to hit its enemies! The scientists first new that the wings had to be used for something was because they were very large for a bird that doesn’t fly. Modern day ibises, which are related to Xenicibis don’t use their wings in this way, but they seemed to have gotten their ferocious need to protect their territory from their ancestor.

Opinion – I think this article is pretty interesting that a bird would use its wings in such a way. The article also said that it is the only bird known with “hands” so I am curious if it used them for anything else. The article also posed an interesting question when it said that the bird stayed flightless even though there were a lot of ground predators. I guess it just must have accidentally warded something off with its wings, and then realized that it was a good technique. I think it was good to read this article after learning about evolution because I can understand it a lot better.