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Giant 'toothed' birds flew over Antarctica 40 million to 50 million years ago
MSN ^ | 11/21/2021 | Peter A. Kloess

Posted on 11/22/2021 6:47:15 AM PST by simpson96

Picture Antarctica today and what comes to mind? Large ice floes bobbing in the Southern Ocean? Maybe a remote outpost populated with scientists from around the world? Or perhaps colonies of penguins puttering amid vast open tracts of snow?

Fossils from Seymour Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, are painting a very different picture of what Antarctica looked like 40 to 50 million years ago – a time when the ecosystem was lusher and more diverse. Fossils of frogs and plants such as ferns and conifers indicate Seymour Island was much warmer and less icy, while fossil remains from marsupials and distant relatives of armadillos and anteaters hint at the previous connections between Antarctica and other continents in the Southern Hemisphere.

There were also birds. Penguins were present then, as they are now, but fossil relatives of ducks, falcons and albatrosses have also been found in Antarctica. My colleagues and I published an article in 2020 revealing new information about the fossil group that would have dwarfed all the other birds on Seymour Island: the pelagornithids, or “bony-toothed” birds.

Giants of the sky

As their name suggests, these ancient birds had sharp, bony spikes protruding from sawlike jaws. Resembling teeth, these spikes would have helped them catch squid or fish. We also studied another remarkable feature of the pelagornithids – their imposing size.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: antarctic; antarctica; globalwarminghoax; godsgravesglyphs; greennewdeal; paleontology; pelagornithids; seymourisland
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1 posted on 11/22/2021 6:47:15 AM PST by simpson96
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To: simpson96

Antarctica was located somewhere else on the planet.


2 posted on 11/22/2021 6:49:55 AM PST by Don Corleone (leave the gun, take the canolis)
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To: simpson96

Stock picture of Maxine Waters.


3 posted on 11/22/2021 6:49:57 AM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: simpson96

At The Mountains Of Madness - By H P Lovecraft ...................


4 posted on 11/22/2021 6:50:30 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Don Corleone

Wouldn’t it then be Ant-Antarctica ?....................


5 posted on 11/22/2021 6:51:07 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: simpson96

The Lost World - by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...........


6 posted on 11/22/2021 6:52:33 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: simpson96

7 posted on 11/22/2021 6:57:29 AM PST by BBQToadRibs2
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To: Red Badger
Current living relative.
8 posted on 11/22/2021 7:00:41 AM PST by Right Brother
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To: Red Badger

I haven’t read that one, will have to see if it’s at Gutenberg.


9 posted on 11/22/2021 7:01:15 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Right Brother

Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a bag of oats over it.........................


10 posted on 11/22/2021 7:02:02 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: simpson96

Choot it! Choot it!


11 posted on 11/22/2021 7:03:10 AM PST by IYAS9YAS (There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.)
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To: Don Corleone

Yes, all of the continental plates have moved around from their current locations. I think if you drilled a well, you will find coal beds on Antarctica.


12 posted on 11/22/2021 7:03:32 AM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: FreedomPoster

It is the ‘Original’ from which King Kong, Jurassic Park and all other similar genres came from.

I read it just a couple of years ago, and it’s still a good read, with a twist at the end!............................


13 posted on 11/22/2021 7:04:11 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: FreedomPoster

Last time I saw a mouth like that, it ha a hook in it.


14 posted on 11/22/2021 7:08:17 AM PST by ArtDodger
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To: Right Brother

8th one in. FR is slipping…


15 posted on 11/22/2021 7:28:27 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Eccl10:2 - The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.)
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To: Don Corleone

Actually, another theory is that the entire planet was pretty much the same temperature, plus or minus 3 degrees, thanks partly to tradewinds going north/south rather than east/west.


16 posted on 11/22/2021 7:32:52 AM PST by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
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To: gov_bean_ counter

In a few decades she could be the new Helen Thomas...


17 posted on 11/22/2021 7:33:56 AM PST by null and void (We can't be beaten unless we surrender, and we are NOT going to surrender!)
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To: Red Badger

I’ve read several of his historic novels and enjoyed them quite well.


18 posted on 11/22/2021 7:34:41 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: simpson96
...40 million to 50 million years ago

Is that millions or thousands of years? God created birds on the 5th day of creation and "creatures that move along the ground" AND mankind on the sixth day (Genesis 1:20-31)
19 posted on 11/22/2021 7:35:05 AM PST by salmon76 (Biden says "Corn Pop told me to send the troops home before the civilians")
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To: ArtDodger; Red Badger

I think you meant that for Red Badger, but yes, I agree with both of you!


20 posted on 11/22/2021 7:37:04 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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