Although most closely related to modern vultures, it shows clear adaptations towards an active predatory lifestyle in the form of robust, powerful talons.

Due to their size and robust bones, it is thought that Dynatoaetus would have been capable of taking large prey items like kangaroos, giant wombats and flightless birds.

The first fossil remains now identified as belonging to Dynatoaetus were discovered in 1956 and 1969 in Mairs Cave, located in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

The discovery of these remains was made by a group of recreational speleologists and palaeontologists, which entered the cave with the express purpose of finding more fossils of the bird.

Many of the bones of Mairs Cave were found to have belonged to a single individual bird, which served as the holotype when the fossils were described as a distinct genus and species by Ellen K. Mather et al. in 2023.

[2] The genus name Dynatoaetus derives from the Ancient Greek "dynatós", a word meaning mighty or powerful, and "āetós" for eagle.

Unlike these two birds of prey, which both likely obtained their massive sizes due to insular gigantism and a lack of notable competitors, Dynatoaetus was a continental species like the Woodward's Eagle (Amplibuteo woodwardi) from North America.

They further highlight that these algorithms generally favour length, not taking into account how weight would be influenced by how robustly built certain birds, like Dynatoaetus, were.

[2] Phylogenetic analysis on the fossil remains of Dynatoaetus used both molecular and morphological data in order to determine its relationship with other birds of prey, resulting in three most parsimonious trees.

Nine anatomical characters connect Dynatoaetus to vultures of the subfamily Aegypiinae, however not all of these are unique to the group and may also be found in other birds of prey like some Gypaetinae and Perninae.

[1] It could be possible that Dynatoaetus simply diverged from other aegypiine vultures prior to their diversification or that it convergently evolved anatomy similar to serpent eagles due to its predator habits.

Regardless of its hypothetical range, Dynatoaetus appears to have inhabited a variety of habitats, from the dry inland of Australia to the more temperate coastal regions.

Given its size and similar interactions observed in modern scavenging birds, it is believed that Dynatoaetus would have been able to dominate carcasses when coming into contact with its smaller relative.

It is hypothesised that Pleistocene wedge-tailed eagles may have been more limited in their ecology due to the pressure put on them by Dynatoaetus as hunters and Cryptogyps as scavengers.