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If you had wandered the high Arctic about 53 million years ago, you might have bumped into a giant, flightless bird with a head as big as a horse's, say a team of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Meet the Gastornis bird. Scientists have found the first and only fossil that originated from the Arctic, just like similar fossil toe bones found in Wyoming dated to around the same period.

The "Gastornis" (formerly "Diatryma") fossil was many hundred pounds in weight and was about six feet tall. The fossils were collected in the 1970s though they were not examined too closely. Similar fossils were found in Europe and Asia.

"We knew there were a few bird fossils from up there, but we also knew they were extremely rare," Jaelyn Eberle, who participated in the research, said in a press release.

In the Eocene Epoch of 53 million years ago, Ellesmere Island above the Arctic Circle was much like the cypress swamps viewed currently in southeast U.S. Many pieces of fossils indicate alligators, primates and other large hippo-like creatures in this region.

There is some speculation about whether the "Gastornis" was a carnivore or a vegan.

The paper also warns that Arctic climate change threatens the area.

"Permanent Arctic ice, which has been around for millennia, is on track to disappear," Eberle said. "I'm not suggesting there will be a return of alligators and giant tortoises to Ellesmere Island anytime soon. But what we know about past warm intervals in the Arctic can give us a much better idea of what to expect in terms of changing plant and animal populations there in the future."

Check out the study in Feb. 12,2016 issue of Scientific Reports.