NEW YORK — A fossil found in the U.S. 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 6.4 metres (21 feet) is bigger than the height of a giraffe. The bird is named Pelagornis sandersi. The name honours a retired museum curator who recovered the fossil. "Pelagornis sandersi could have travelled for extreme distances while crossing ocean waters in search of prey," Dan Ksepka, from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina, told International Business Tribune. "Pelagornithids were like creatures out of a fantasy novel -- there is simply nothing like them around today." The skeleton was discovered in 1983 in South Carolina, but its first formal description was released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Daniel Ksepka of the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, who wrote the paper, said the creature probably did not land on water. And it was apparently clumsy on land. The scientists think that if it landed the bird would even have a hard time taking off again and would need to run down a hill to get the needed momentum to take off. "I think they just waited on the beach for a strong wind to carry them aloft," Ksepka told National Geographic. For Latest Uploads please Visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCosmosNews/videos Latest Uploads From The Cosmos News https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdM_BWPQiR9C-uBWUfRBO4UnDU5YGhrcM
Visibility: 24302
Duration: 1m 42s
Rating: 88