Fossils discovered in South Carolina have been identified by scientists as the Pelagornis sanders, an extinct bird with a wingspan of 20 to 24 feet.
Dwarfing today's albatross, which stands as the largest modern bird with a 12-foot wingspan, the huge extinct bird is believed to have lived 25 to 28 million years ago, Reuters reported. The researchers have published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"This bird would have just blotted out the sun as it swooped overhead," lead study author Daniel Ksepka, a paleontologist with the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn., told Reuters. "Up close, it may have called to mind a dragon."
Part of an extinct group called pelagornithids, the bird had stumpy legs, long wings and bony projections on its jaws to scoop up prey. Scientists estimate that birds with teeth went extinct around 65 million years ago and say that pelagornithids developed "pseudoteeth" instead.
"All modern birds lack teeth, but early birds such as Archaeopteryx had teeth inherited from their non-bird, dinosaurian ancestors. So in this case the pelagornithids did not evolve new true teeth, which are in sockets, but rather were constrained by prior evolution to develop tooth-like projections of their jaw bones," said Paul Olsen, a Columbia University paleontologist who did not participate in the study.
Founded in 1983, the ancient bird's fossils were happened upon while construction workers were building a new terminal for the Charleston International Airport. The skull of the giant creature is nearly complete, while the find also includes wing and leg bones as well as one of the bird's shoulder blade and the wishbone.
While it had the biggest wingspan yet discovered, the Pelagornis sanders weighed between 48 and 90 pounds, coming in far lower than various extinct flightless birds that were larger in size.
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