Yes, the Chocobo from Final Fantasy was real!
And in the height of the first great age of large land animals on Earth after the death of the dinosaurs, for some 10 million years, the Chocobo was the dominant large land animal on Earth, in just about every continent!
Gastornis in Eurasia and North America was a real-life Chocobo.
The Demon Duck of Doom in prehistoric Australia was a real-life Chocobo.
Brontornis, which until recently was thought to be a terror bird (and which we still do not have a decent preserved beak from), is now known to be a Chocobo.
For about 10 million years, the dominant large land animals on Earth were crocodiles and giant birds and, at one point across the northern continents, Uintatherium.
The smaller ones- Hobbit-sized to man-sized- were the ostrich-like Ratites, which were, yes, in Eurasia and North America alongside Gastornis.
These were descended from fully flighted, chicken-like birds called Tinamous.
Their supposedly 'primitive' or basal characteristics are actually later, derived adaptations to being a large running animal.
But the really big ones were the Chocobos, and the Gastornis birds of Eocene Eurasia and North America were the small ones.
After the age of Gastornis gave way to the age of the Brontothere in Eurasia and North America, the Chocobos of South America and Australia, isolated island continents, continued to thrive until the beginning of the Ice Age and the Great American Interchange- and in Australia, until the end of the Ice Age.
These got truly huge!
Dromornis Stirtorni, the famous Demon duck of Doom, was 10 feet tall and weighed as much as a great war horse, a bull water buffalo, or a large male Kodiak bear, fully four times the weight of an ostrich!
This newly discovered large species of 'Demon duck of Doom' may be the heaviest bird ever to exist, heavier than the famed elephant bird!
And Brontornis is nearly as large, some 9 feet tall and nearly the weight of an Arabian stallion!
And yes, these were all descended from ducks!
Probably from running ducks much like Screamers today, which have good land legs for running!
These Screamers and the chicken-like Tinamous were the animals that, among all the animals that survived the death of the dinosaur, were best suited to evolving into a reasonably well-adapted large land animal fairly quickly, and were, with crocodiles and possibly giant pythons, the first large land animals to evolve after the death of the dinosaurs, and even in North America and Eurasia the larger Gastornis (let alone the local Ratites, which gave rise to the Ostrich in time) thrived alongside early large land mammals for millions of years, including the awesome Uintatherium! (Until the age of the Brontothere came along!)
And so yes, the Chocobo was real, yes, for about 10 million years they were the dominant form of land life on Earth, and in Australia they got truly immense!
And they are all the descendents of ducks!
Food for thought!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. The original Demon Duck of Doom was Dromornis Planei, until recently the largest known Dromornis, which is some 8 feet tall and fully twice the weight of an ostrich, half again the weight of a Gastornis. However, the recently discovered Dromornis Stirtorni is even bigger, much bigger! Even bigger than Brontornis, which until recently was thought to be a 'Terror Bird'; to this day we do not have a decent beak from Brontornis, and we can now safely assume that their beak was like that of Gastornis and Dromornis, not like the carnivorous hooked beak of the 'Terror Birds'.
P.P.S. Brontornis was once thought to be a 'Terror Bird' in the absence of a beak based on having jaw bones (we do have a jaw joint, apparently) and foot bones similar to the Phorusrhacoid 'Terror Birds'; but other super-large birds of this size, such as Dromornis (the Demon Duck of Doom), are known to share these features. Which makes it more telling that their leg bones are more like that of geese in their details. (at least, that is what the detailed Wikipedia article says. This is a light fun post, not a major work!)