<div class="" data-article-body="true"><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">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?</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">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 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:frogs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">frogs</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2011.565214" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:plants;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">plants</a> such as ferns and conifers indicate Seymour Island was much warmer and less icy, while fossil remains from <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8268" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:marsupials and distant relatives of armadillos and anteaters;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">marsupials and distant relatives of armadillos and anteaters</a> hint at the previous connections between Antarctica and other continents in the Southern Hemisphere.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">There were also birds. Penguins were present then, as they are now, but fossil relatives of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2019.0014" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:ducks, falcons and albatrosses;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">ducks, falcons and albatrosses</a> have also been found in Antarctica. My <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5CGShQUAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:colleagues;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">colleagues</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XlyfD9QAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:I;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">I</a> published an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:article in 2020;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">article in 2020</a> revealing new information about the fossil group that would have dwarfed all the other birds on Seymour Island: the pelagornithids, or “bony-toothed” birds.</p><h2 class="mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl">Giants of the sky</h2><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">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.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">The largest flying bird alive today is the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/group/albatrosses/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:wandering albatross;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">wandering albatross</a>, which has a wingspan that reaches 11 ½ feet. The Antarctic pelagornithids fossils we studied have a wingspan nearly double that – about 21 feet across. If you tipped a two-story building on its side, that’s about 20 feet.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">Across Earth’s history, very few groups of vertebrates have achieved powered flight – and only two reached truly giant sizes: birds and a group of <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/pterosaurs-flight-in-the-age-of-dinosaurs/what-is-a-pterosaur" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:reptiles called pterosaurs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">reptiles called pterosaurs</a>.</p><figure class="relative mb-4"><div class="relative"><img alt="A model of an enormous prehistoric bird is mounted outdoor in the middle of a river. The wingspan reaches from bank to bank." loading="lazy" width="960" height="637" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="rounded-lg" style="color:transparent" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/3AkY7dyr6bv3rCBWa9oRYw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYzNztjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_conversation_us_articles_815/814f0b097c616fc316b7c8effde267a7"><button aria-label="View larger image" class="group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent" data-ylk="elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;"><span class="absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none"><svg viewbox="0 0 22 22" aria-hidden="true" class="size-4 lg:size-6" width="22" height="22"><path d="M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z"></path></svg></span></button><dialog aria-label="Modal Dialog" aria-modal="true" class="fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden"></dialog></div><figcaption class="relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5"><div style="max-height:none;overflow:visible">Full-size model of a Quetzalcoatlus on display at JuraPark in Baltow, Poland. <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Kecalkoatl_%28Quetzalcoatlus%29_-_Baltow_%281%29.JPG" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Aneta Leszkiewicz/Wikimedia;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Aneta Leszkiewicz/Wikimedia</a></div></figcaption></figure><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">Pterosaurs ruled the skies during the Mesozoic Era (252 million to 66 million years ago), the same period that dinosaurs roamed the planet, and they reached hard-to-believe dimensions. <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/11/absurd-creature-of-the-week-quetz/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Quetzalcoatlus;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Quetzalcoatlus</a> stood 16 feet tall and had a colossal 33-foot wingspan.</p><h2 class="mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl">Birds get their opportunity</h2><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">Birds originated while dinosaurs and pterosaurs were still roaming the planet. But when an <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-killing-asteroid-impact-chicxulub-crater-timeline-destruction-180973075/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago</a>, dinosaurs and pterosaurs both perished. Some <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/how-birds-survived-asteroid-impact-wiped-out-dinosaurs" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:select birds survived;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">select birds survived</a>, though. These survivors diversified into the thousands of bird species alive today. Pelagornithids evolved in the period right after dinosaur and pterosaur extinction, when competition for food was lessened.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1284" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:The earliest pelagornithid remains;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">The earliest pelagornithid remains</a>, recovered from 62-million-year-old sediments in New Zealand, were about the size of modern gulls. The first giant pelagornithids, the ones in our study, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:took flight over Antarctica about 10 million years later;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">took flight over Antarctica about 10 million years later</a>, in a period called the Eocene Epoch (56 million to 33.9 million years ago). In addition to these specimens, fossilized remains from other pelagornithids have been found on every continent.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">Pelagornithids lasted for about 60 million years before going extinct just before the Pleistocene Epoch (2.5 million to 11,700 years ago). No one knows exactly why, though, because few fossil records have been recovered from the period at the end of their reign. Some paleontologists cite <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2011.562268" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:climate change as a possible factor;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">climate change as a possible factor</a>.</p><h2 class="mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl">Piecing it together</h2><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">The fossils we studied are fragments of whole bones collected by paleontologists from the University of California at Riverside in the 1980s. In 2003, the specimens were transferred to Berkeley, where they now reside in the <a href="https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:University of California Museum of Paleontology;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">University of California Museum of Paleontology</a>.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">There isn’t enough material from Antarctica to rebuild an entire skeleton, but by comparing the fossil fragments with similar elements from more complete individuals, we were able to assess their size.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">We estimate the pelagornithid’s skull would have been about 2 feet long. A fragment of one bird’s lower jaw preserves some of the “pseudoteeth” that would have each measured up to an inch tall. The spacing of those “teeth” and other measurements of the jaw show this fragment came from an individual as big as, if not bigger than, the largest known pelagornithids.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=Yahoo&amp;utm_medium=inline-link&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter-text&amp;utm_content=deepknowledge" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">Further evidence of the size of these Antarctic birds comes from a second pelagornithid fossil, from a different location on Seymour Island. A section of a foot bone, called a tarsometatarsus, is the largest specimen known for the entire extinct group.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words">These pelagornithid fossil findings emphasize the importance of natural history collections. Successful field expeditions result in a wealth of material brought back to a museum or repository – but the time required to prepare, study and publish on fossils means these institutions typically <a href="https://theconversation.com/digitizing-the-vast-dark-data-in-museum-fossil-collections-102833" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:hold many more specimens than they can display;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">hold many more specimens than they can display</a>. Important discoveries can be made by collecting specimens on expeditions in remote locations, no doubt. But equally important discoveries can be made by simply processing the backlog of specimens already on hand.</p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words"><em>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com/us?utm_source=Yahoo&amp;utm_medium=related-link&amp;utm_campaign=related-link-0&amp;utm_content=article-148772" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:The Conversation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">The Conversation</a>, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-a-kloess-1164526?utm_source=Yahoo&amp;utm_medium=related-link&amp;utm_campaign=byline-link&amp;utm_content=article-148772" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Peter A. Kloess;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Peter A. Kloess</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-california-berkeley-754?utm_source=Yahoo&amp;utm_medium=related-link&amp;utm_campaign=byline-link&amp;utm_content=article-148772" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:University of California, Berkeley;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">University of California, Berkeley</a></em> </em></p><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words"><strong>Read more:</strong><br></p><ul class="mb-4"><li class="ml-4 list-disc"><div class=""><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words"><a href="http://theconversation.com/ancient-bird-skull-found-in-amber-was-tiny-predator-in-the-time-of-giant-dinosaurs-132949?utm_source=Yahoo&amp;utm_medium=related-link&amp;utm_campaign=related-link0&amp;utm_content=article-148772" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Ancient bird skull found in amber was tiny predator in the time of giant dinosaurs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Ancient bird skull found in amber was tiny predator in the time of giant dinosaurs</a></p></div></li><li class="ml-4 list-disc"><div class=""><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words"><a href="http://theconversation.com/what-makes-some-species-more-likely-to-go-extinct-101773?utm_source=Yahoo&amp;utm_medium=related-link&amp;utm_campaign=related-link1&amp;utm_content=article-148772" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:What makes some species more likely to go extinct?;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">What makes some species more likely to go extinct?</a></p></div></li><li class="ml-4 list-disc"><div class=""><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words"><a href="http://theconversation.com/emperor-penguins-could-march-to-extinction-if-nations-fail-to-halt-climate-change-126320?utm_source=Yahoo&amp;utm_medium=related-link&amp;utm_campaign=related-link2&amp;utm_content=article-148772" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Emperor Penguins could march to extinction if nations fail to halt climate change;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Emperor Penguins could march to extinction if nations fail to halt climate change</a></p></div></li></ul><p class="mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words"><em><span>Peter A. Kloess does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p></div>

Paleontologists have discovered fossil remains belonging to an enormous ‘toothed’ bird that lived for a period of about 60 million years after dinosaurs.

Giant ‘toothed’ birds flew over Antarctica 40 million to 50 million years ago

Finding a reasonable pre-owned vehicle for seniors includes adjusting unwavering quality, solace, and usability. Choosing vehicles is fundamental


Involved Vehicles for Seniors: Track down the Best Picks for Solace and Dependability


The fact that many try to accomplish makes financial opportunity an objective. It addresses the cheapdom to pursue decisions without being obliged


My Excursion to Monetary Autonomy: Awesome ways to save cash


Putting resources into Endorsements of Store (Discs) is an econ\u00f4mico method for developing your reserve funds, however it's significant to know


Step by step instructions to Explore Assessment Ramifications of Disc Rates


KJ Muldoon received a groundbreaking new treatment earlier this year.

Baby takes 1st steps after receiving groundbreaking gene-edited therapy

Noah Beck leads Tubi’s “Sidelined” young adult romance movies, becoming one of the first TikTokers to successfully transition to traditional fame.

He made a name for himself posting thirst traps on TikTok. Now he's the star of a wildly popular rom-com.

"Stranger Things" comes to an end on New Year's Eve.

'Stranger Things' series finale trailer shows Hawkins gang gearing up for last battle with Vecna

In the present progressively advanced world, keeping up with proficient handshakes can challenge. In any case, whether you're organizing on the web or face to face, the


The most effective method to Keep up with Proficient Handshakes in a Computerized World


Fish sweethearts, now is the right time to make your choice for your number one sea amuse. From delicious shrimp to rich and smooth lobster, the decisions are perpetual, however only one can rule. Fish dishes o


Most loved Fish Dish: What's Your Sea Pleasure?


The holiday season is a time for giving thanks, giving gifts — and for many, a time for giving back.  Food banks, services that deliver meals to seniors and other U.S. charities typically see a surge in volunteering between Thanksgiving and the end of the year.  Alfred Del Grosso volunteers weekly to work the lunch shift at Shepherd’s Table, a food bank in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Why doing good also makes us feel good, during the holidays and beyond

Maintainable living and natural preservation are critical for protecting the planet for people in the future. By embracing eco-accommodating practices, people can


Embracing Practical Living and Ecological Protection


The reconciliation of brilliant innovation into our homes has changed numerous parts of day to day existence, and presently, even our rest


Manual for 6 Hot Brilliant Beds


This year marks the 40th anniversary that MLK Day was first observed in 1986.

When is MLK Day? Plus, the dates of when other federal holidays land in 2026.

For over two centuries, we have watched the red giant R Leonis dim and brighten with regularity, but this 'heartbeat' is beginning to speed up near the end of the star's life.

We may be witnessing the messy death of a star in real time

This waterfront gem in Western Canada is the perfect place to hide away, tucked along the stunning Upper Arrow Lake and surrounded by steaming natural pools.