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BBC News: Ancient American bird was glider – BBC News article; How the dinosaur bird took to the skies – Daily Telegraph article; Secret of flight for world's largest bird revealed – COSMOS magazine article; Argentavis, the largest flying bird, was a master glider – Article from the blog Not Exactly Rocket Science
It is one of the largest flying birds known to have existed, only likely exceeded by measurement of wingspan by Pelagornis sandersi, discovered in 1983. [6] Fossil remains of this species have been dated to Late Miocene, about 6 to 8 million years ago, and one of the few teratorn finds in South America.
Pelagornis sandersi comparison with the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) and the wandering albatross (Diomeda exulans). The sole specimen of P. sandersi has a wingspan estimated between approximately 6.06 and 7.38 m (19.9 and 24.2 ft), [9] giving it the largest wingspan of any flying bird yet discovered, twice that of the wandering albatross, which has the largest wingspan of any extant bird (up ...
Quetzalcoatlus (/ k ɛ t s əl k oʊ ˈ æ t l ə s /) is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous in North America. The type specimen, recovered in 1971 from the Javelina Formation of Texas, United States, consists of several wing fragments and was described as Quetzalcoatlus northropi in 1975 by Douglas Lawson.
Houde demonstrated that the Lithornithiformes, a group of flying birds that were common in the Cenozoic of the Northern Hemisphere, were also paleognaths. He argues that the lithornithiform bird Paleotis , known from fossils in Denmark (Northern Hemisphere), shared unique anatomical features of the skull that make it a member of the same order ...
Weight is the largest obstacle birds must overcome in order to fly. An animal can more easily attain flight by reducing its absolute weight. Birds evolved from other theropod dinosaurs that had already gone through a phase of size reduction during the Middle Jurassic, combined with rapid evolutionary changes. [3]
The largest prehistoric horse was Equus giganteus of North America. It was estimated to grow to more than 1,250 kg (1.38 short tons) and 2 m (6 ft 7 in) at the shoulders. [138] The largest anchitherine equid was Hypohippus at 403 to 600 kg (888 to 1,323 lb), comparable to large modern domestic horses.
Gigantornis eaglesomei is a very large prehistoric bird described from a fragmentary specimen from the Eocene of Nigeria.It was originally described as a representative of the albatross family, Diomedeidae, but was later referred to the pseudotooth or bony-toothed bird family, Pelagornithidae.