Scientists Reveal What May Be the Largest Flying Bird Ever

A pelagornithid, likely the largest flying bird that ever lived, soared over the open ocean. Imagine an albatross with a hacksaw for a mouth. Set that strange creature about 50 million years in the past and you’ve got the image of a pelagornithid, a group of ancient avians that included some of the largest flying birds of all time. And now paleontologists have uncovered in that group what may be the largest known flying birds ever, with wingspans of roughly 20 feet.

The new study documenting the birds, published today in Scientific Reports , is the result of a fossil detective story spanning from Antarctica to California. By comparing a pair of polar fossils to the remains of related birds, paleontologists have been able to identify the early history of enormous fliers that were some of the first birds capable of soaring across seas.

During the 1980s, University of California Berkeley paleontologist Peter Kloess says, scientists searching for Antarctic fossils found some delicate bird bones—a jaw and part of a foot from an ancient bird—on Seymour Island. Those bones then made a long journey to California, but their story was only just starting. The jaw and foot bone were […]

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