Scientists find remains of giant prehistoric bird living 50 million years ago
Q. Scientists have found a bird with the largest wingspan recorded. What is the species it belongs to called?- Published on 20 May 16a. Bony toothed bird
b. Pelagormithid
c. Both a and b
d. None of the above
ANSWER: None of the above
Scientists on May 18 found the remains of a giant prehistoric bird that lived 50 million years ago in Antarctica and had the largest wingspan ever recorded.
- Palaeontologists 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.
- The bird's wings, fully extended, spanned more than 6.4 meters (21 feet), she said. Antarctica specialists say there were two kinds of pelagornithid on the continent, one that reached up to five meters tall, with a similar wingspan, and another that stood more than seven meters.
- 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.
