Fossils of Giant Birds ‘Pelagornithids’ Identified in Antarctica

Scientists have identified the fossil of a giant bird called Pelagornithids that lived about 50 million years ago, with wingspans of up to 21 feet that would dwarf today’s largest bird, the wandering albatross. The wandering albatross has a wingspan of 11 and-a-half-foot.

• The fossils recovered from Antarctica in the 1980s represent the oldest giant members of an extinct group of birds that patrolled the southern oceans.
• The newly described fossils — a 50 million-year-old portion of a bird’s foot — shows that the larger pelagornithids arose just after life rebounded from the mass extinction 65 million years ago, when the relatives ....