First giants of the first forests

The antarctic fern spike lasted for at least 40.000 years, locally even 150.000 years. During this geologically short period, several species of pioneer herbs and shrubs were able to slowly colonize the fern association and increase its botanical biodiversity, favoring native invertebrates and, a bit later, vertebrates.

About 50.000 years after the END, the northern portion of the continent was mostly occupied by closed shrublands dominated by derived willows, displacing the once dominant ferns.
Around 300.000 years after the END, when the climate had finally stabilized, shrublands were already converted into large forests. These potentially biodiverse environments however are affected by the "empty forest" effect: with the lack of ducktails and other large vertebrates, these woodlands look silent and lifeless, like many holocenic forests after the extinction of megafauna.
The silence and the nearly undisturbed undergrowth of these forests are only broken by a strong and powerful call, a sort of highly melodic song: we're hearing one of the several social calls of the singer of the Resurgence (Neopasser titanicus), the first giant vertebrate after the END.
While not comparable to the average size of a ducktail, the singer of resurgence is truly the only dominator of the northern woodlands.
This species rapidly evolved from a lineage of emissaries of the ash, becoming a giant herbivorous that feeds mostly on leaves and fruits, which are digested similarly to primordial rostrids, using ceca. Thanks to its size and the lack of large carnivores, this bird has no enemies in adulthood, while eggs and chicks can potentially fall prey to several opportunistic birds, wotters and a fairly large ecotype of soulfeeder (no heavier than 10 kg/22 lbs).

With no ducktails, the dominance of large niches during the Cambiocene will pass to an unexpected bird: a passerine, a ground tyrant.
But they will not be alone.