Giant prehistoric bird fossil with largest wingspan ever recorded found in Antarctica

[edd]

A replica of a Pelagornis skeleton at the National Museum of Natural History. CREDIT: RYAN SOMMA/WIKI

19 MAY 2016 • 9:12AM

Scientists on Wednesday said they have found the remains of a giant prehistoric bird that lived 50 million years ago in Antarctica and had the largest wingspan ever recorded.

Paleontologists at a natural history museum in Argentina said they had identified the pelagornithid, or bony-toothed bird, nearly three years after its fossilised bones were first found at an Argentine research base on the Antarctic island of Marambio.

"Almost three years ago, remains began to appear of what we believed could be this bird. Then we found a bone that confirmed that it was a pelagornithid," an extinct family of enormous seabirds, said Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche, a researcher on the project.

The bird's wings, fully extended, spanned more than 6.4 metres (21 feet), she said.

Her colleague Marcos Cenizo, the director of the Natural Sciences Museum of La Pampa, said the bird was the largest pelagornithid specimen ever found.

"The shape of their wings allowed them to glide and cross large distances across the oceans," he said.

Antarctica specialists say there were two kinds of pelagornithid on the continent, one that reached up to five metres tall, with a similar wingspan, and another that stood more than seven metres.

The birds likely developed to their monstrous size some 50 million years ago, when warming ocean temperatures would have given them an abundance of food to thrive, the researchers said.

But the recently identified specimen would have been quite light despite its stature - 30 to 35 kilograms (66 to 77 pounds), Cenizo said.

"Almost like a feather."

The researchers published the find in the Journal of Paleontology.

Edited May 26, 2016 by edd

[ashcraft]

I thought the toothed bird's went extinct at the kpg boundary?

Brent Ashcraft

Edited May 26, 2016 by ashcraft

[Auspex]

I thought the toothed bird's went extinct at the kpg boundary?

Brent Ashcraft

True that, but these are "false-toothed" birds; the teeth being bony extensions of the bill.

[ashcraft]

Did these "teeth" contain enamel?

Brent Ashcraft

[Auspex]

Did these "teeth" contain enamel?

Brent Ashcraft

No, they were bony projections of the maxilla and mandible, sheathed in keratin.

[jpc]

and neither were they separate growths, like real teeth.

[ashcraft]

"Nature will find a way"

Brent Ashcraft