Prehistoric Bird With Largest Known Avian Wingspan Found

Prehistoric Bird With Largest Known Avian Wingspan Found

Even the albatross appears to be small in comparison to an extinct bird Pelagornis sandersi found by scientists from fossils discovered in South Carolina. This bird lived 25 to 28 million years ago on planet earth. The bird has the largest-known avian wingspan in the history of mankind. Its wing span is an astonishing 20 to 24 feet which is 6.1 to 7.4 meters.

Size is not the only reason that it is unique. The bird also had a series of bony, tooth-like projections from long jaws for eating fish and squid along the US east coast. According to paleontologist Daniel Kspeka from the Bruce Museum located in Greenwich, Connecticut, the bird was an astonishing sight because it would have “just blotted out the sun as it swooped overhead”. Ksepka also said the bird may have resembled a dragon.

This bird has short, stumpy legs preventing it from being graceful in its landing. But the long, slender wings are critical for making it efficient as a glider so it can stay in the air for long stretches regardless of its massive size.

The bird belonged to an extinct group known as Pelagornithids which existed about 55 million to 3 million years ago, the last birds with teeth belonging to this species reached extinction in the same calamity that led to the death of the dinosaurs.

This group has also developed “psuedo-teeth” for serving the same purpose. The birds lived on every continent including the Antarctica. The reason behind the extinction is as of yet unknown, according to Ksepka.

While modern birds do not have teeth, early birds such as the Archaropteryx had inherited teeth from non-bird, dinosaurian ancestors. In this case the pelagornithids had not evolved new true teeth that are in sockets, but were constrained by prior evolution for ascertaining tooth-like projections of jaw bones, according to Paul Olsen who is a Columbia University paleontologist who did not take part in the investigation.

These birds lived in the manner akin to those of the pterosaurs. The pterosaurs were extinct flying reptiles living alongside dinosaurs that had the largest wingspans of any flying creature. The wingspan reached around 36 feet which is roughly 11 meters.

The fossils were unearthed in 1983 when construction workers constructed a new terminal at Charleston International Airport. The skull of the bird was in good condition and the scientists were also able to study the wing and leg bones as well as the shoulder blade and wishbone.

Up till now, the birds which possessed the largest-known wingpspans were the smaller, condor like Argentavis magnificens that lived 6 million years ago in Argentina. Another pelagornithid Pelagornis chilensis living in Chile around the same time were also given this distinction once. However at 22-40 kgs, the Pelagornis sandersi was not one of the heaviest birds. So, when it comes to flying, heavyweights may not be the winners when it comes to wingspans.