Fossil
of 'largest flying bird' identified
Rebecca Morelle By Rebecca Morelle Science
Correspondent, BBC News
The fossilised remains of the largest flying bird
ever found have been identified by scientists.This creature would have looked
like a seagull on steroids - its wingspan was between 6.1 and 7.4m (20-24ft).The
find is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The
25m-year-old fossil was unearthed 30 years ago in South Carolina, but it has
taken until now to identify that this is a new species.Daniel Ksepka, curator
of science at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut, said: "This fossil is
remarkable both for the size, which we could only speculate on before the
discovery, and for the preservation.
Huge birds like this were once common, but they vanished about three million
years ago.Scientists do not yet understand why these giants of the skies died
out.
Read rest see pics here :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28164063
Perhaps the stories of
the Thunderbird come from the finding of giant fossils like this or maybe they
didn’t die out and a an evolved form is flying around out there somewhere....a
Thunderbird.
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