Context: Scientists have identified the fossil of a giant bird that lived about 50 million years ago, with wingspans of up to 21 feet that would dwarf today’s largest bird, the wandering albatross.

Pelagornithids

• The fossils recovered from Antarctica in the 1980s represent the oldest giant members of an extinct group of birds that patrolled the southern oceans.
• Birds filled a niche much like that of today’s albatrosses and travelled widely over Earth’s oceans for at least 60 million years.
• The pelagornithids came along to claim the wingspan record in the Cenozoic, after the mass extinction, and lived until about 2.5 million years ago.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/antarctica-yields-fossils-of-giant-birds-with-21-foot-wingspans/article32963050.ece?homepage=true

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