Study: Fossil soaring bird had huge wingspan

Associated Press ^ | Jul 7, 2014 3:12 PM EDT | Malcolm Ritter

[Olog-hai]

A fossil found in South Carolina has revealed a gigantic bird that apparently snatched fish while soaring over the ocean some 25 million to 28 million years ago.

Its estimated wingspan of around 21 feet is bigger than the height of a giraffe. …

[RegulatorCountry]

Or, maybe the remains of the bird predate the presence of the body of water. Maybe it ate marine reptiles. Maybe it merely died in the ocean due to being attacked by a predator while floating on the surface. There is not enough information to support anything beyond what is seen in the remains. It was a carnivore. Speculating about dietary habits is just guessing, with no more factual basis than saying it was green with brown spots and nested in palm trees for camouflage amongst the coconuts.

[kitchen]

This guy has been gone for a while.

Still looking for the roasting pan ...

[WhiskeyX]

“Speculating about dietary habits is just guessing....”

Not necessarily. Trace amounts of chemicals and biochemical remaining in bone not fully mineralized or in mineralized fossils of bone can reveal the dietary composition of the animal’s prey.

[The Cajun]

No bird shot for that thing, strictly 00 buck.

[RegulatorCountry]

There is no indication of such analysis in the referenced article.

[BradyLS]

The Andean Condor has a wingspan of just over 10 feet and can weigh as much as 33 pounds. Steller’s Sea Eagle and the White-Tailed Eagle both have average spans of well over 7 feet and there among the very largest eagles.

I remember a nature program that talked about larger eagles in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia with wingspans over 12 feet and they went in search of one. Very large Bald, Steller’s, and White-Tailed eagles they found, but no evidence of anything more extraordinary than a condor’s span.

No doubt there were at one time larger species that flew over the earth and they may yet find again and capture some spectacular examples along a desolate coast one day.

[BradyLS]

Damn, but those are some teeth!

[The Cajun]

I remember the stories, they had people both in the sky and on the ground seeing them.
It was a hot topic for a while, then faded away, didn't have the staying power of bigfoot, LOL.

Still hard to imagine something that size being able to take off easily considering all the trouble a condor has.

[BradyLS]

Bandit! 10 o’clock high!

[WhiskeyX]

“There is no indication of such analysis in the referenced article.”

The PNAS article is behind a paywall, so I don’t have access to read it to determine whether there is or is not such evidence available. I suspect such evidence is unlikely to be available due to the age of the fossil.

Nonetheless, the morphological evidence clearly identifies the animal as a waterfowl in a genus known to predate upon fish in the marine environment. The pseudoteeth of the fossil are very strongly indicative of a fish catching waterfowl. It also cannot be assumed chemical traces of the bird’s prey will not be recovered at some point in the future, so it cannot be concluded or truly said a fossil of this bird cannot tell us what it preyed upon.

[EinNYC]

With a 20 foot wingspan, the bird would not have been highly agile, able to turn on a dime like today's modern hawks. It would have been mostly a glider, like today's albatrosses. It probably had to dive from cliffs to get airborne with a wingspan like that. These characteristics would pretty much dictate it was a fish nabber.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

The Giant Claw

[Flick Lives]

At a 21 foot wingspan, we’re gonna need some more sauce for the buffalo wings.

[Olog-hai]

Not impossible. Ever see the teeth of fruit bats, which do both of those types of feeding?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Olog-hai. It has been a great week for finding potential GGG topics, but a lousy one for my posting them. :'(

[Silentgypsy]

What would we do without you? Thank you for all the work you do!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Silentgypsy!