Fossils dug up at airport may be largest flying bird ever found

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Fossils dug up at airport may be largest flying bird ever found

Nishad Karim
theguardian.com, Monday 7 July 2014 20.00 BST

A clutch of fossilised bones uncovered during the expansion of an airport terminal in the US may belong to the largest flying bird ever found.

The prehistoric creature had a wingspan of between 6.1 and 7.4 metres and could glide for long distances over the oceans as it searched for fish 25m years ago, according to scientists writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Its wingspan was double that of the royal albatross, the largest flying bird alive, and challenges the wingspan of Argentavis magnificens, a prehistoric bird that lived six million years ago and had a wingspan between 5.5 and 7 metres.

The bird, named Pelagornis sandersi, had short, stumpy legs and likely took to the air by hopping off cliff edges or making short runs into the wind to take off from the ground or sea. In flight it reached speeds of up to 60 km/h.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/07/fossils-airport-largest-flying-bird-pelagornis-sandersi

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Strangely appropriate site. nt

[Louisiana1976]

4. Good coincidence.

[yuiyoshida]

12. my thoughts

exactly, as well.

[arcane1]

2. Wow, that's at least the distance from my front door to the back door.

That's big!

[bluedigger]

3. Found in 1983.

Took them awhile to take a look at the bones, I guess. Pretty cool!

[Enthusiast]

5. Museums are full of fossils still encased in a matrix after several decades.

Seems like a shame. They are actually "discovering" things in museums all the time.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Fossil's 21-foot wingspan shows Pelagornis was 'largest flying bird'

Fossil's 21-foot wingspan shows Pelagornis was 'largest flying bird'
By Amina Khan


July 7, 2014, 3:10 PM




Sometimes finding a skeleton in a closet can be a good thing – if you’re a paleontologist. Meet Pelagornis sandersi, a giant bird with a wingspan 21 feet across – so wide that it could have been the size of a (very) small plane..

The enormous extinct avian, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pushes the limit of what’s possible in bird flight.

The one and only known Pelagornis sandersi fossil’s wings stretch a whopping 6.4 meters (or 20.99 feet) – about twice that of the royal albatross, among the largest living birds capable of taking to the skies. It sported strange tooth-like cones that protruded from its beak. The remarkable bones were actually discovered in 1983 near Charleston Airport in South Carolina, but they remained hidden in a drawer at the Charleston Museum until study author Daniel Ksepka, a paleontologist then at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, came across them about three decades later.

“I was not expecting this bird when I went down there,” said Ksepka, now at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut. Ksepka named the strange specimen after Albert Sanders, the now-retired curator who collected the unique fossil after it was discovered — and who later invited Ksepka to come look through fossils at the museum.

P. sandersi, which probably lived 25 million to 28 million years ago, was probably larger even than another extinct mega-bird, Argentavis magnificens, Ksepka said. Some have previously estimated that Argentavis’ wingspan was nearly 7 meters, but Ksepka said with the data in hand, Pelagornis still wins: Argentavis would have had a size range of 5.09 to 6.07 meters and Pelagornis would have been about a meter longer, at 6.06 to 7.38 meters. (Argentavis was probably more massive, however.)

More:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-largest-flying-bird-fossil-pelagornis-sandersi-20140707-story.html

[littlemissmartypants]

7. So cool.

When I was nine I told everyone I wanted to be a paleontologist. Then someone laughed at me and told me that I was a girl.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. Too bad when we are young

we don't have it in us to tell them to fuck off. Instead, we let them win.

[littlemissmartypants]

11. We can be empowered to do that.

I had some excellent role models. It took me a while to feel comfortable with my personal power.
I did fare well after a while.

Persistence and tenacity paid off eventually.
Having a Pollyanna faith in humanity keeps me afloat and aloft.

Thanks for your post.

Love, Peace and Shelter. littlemissmartypants

[littlemissmartypants]

8. I collect animal bones now.

Thanks for your post. Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Imagine riding it.

Or seeing it in the sky overhead.
Imagination. Greatest nation in the world.
Gawd love the curator.

Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp