Fossil pelagornithid bird with 6m wingspan found in Antarctica

The fossil remains of a 50-million-year-old bird with a six-metre wingspan have been found in Antarctica. Paleontologists at a natural history museum in Argentina said they had identified the pelagornithid, or bony-toothed bird, nearly three years after its fossilised bones were first found at an Argentine research base on the Antarctic island of Marambio.

"Almost three years ago, remains began to appear of what we believed could be this bird.

Then we found a bone that confirmed that it was a pelagornithid," an extinct family of enormous seabirds, said Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche, a researcher on the project.

The bird's wings, fully extended, spanned more than 6.4 metres.

This is twice as big as the albatross, the largest flying bird alive today, which has a wingspan of 3.3 metres.

Ms Acosta Hospitaleche's colleague Marcos Cenizo, the director of the Natural Sciences Museum of La Pampa, said the bird was the largest pelagornithid specimen ever found.

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