Facts About Giant Birds

Pelagornis is a little known bird for unknown reasons. As the largest bird genus that has ever graced the airs of the Earth the birds in this genus should probably be a lot more famous than they are right now. There are a number of websites that share images and facts about the genus out there though, meaning that the popularity of the fossil may be below the radar of most popular sites, but there is some knowledge and a following out there. The sites that mention Pelagornis are some of the most common websites that we see on a regular basis on this site. This includes About, as it usually does. Kidzsearch, the online kids encyclopedia shared here sometimes, also has a very short discussion on Pelagornis. The Latin Times also gets in on discussing this group of birds. The birds have been discovered at diverse sites across the entire globe (The type specimens include: P. miocaenus from France, P. mauretanicus from Morocco, P. chilensis from Chile, and P. sandersi from North Carolina), which is why there are diverse sources like The Latin Times.

Giant Bony-toothed Birds

In the past decade the giant bird Pelagornis has been studied more often than in the previous century. Three new species have been named in eight years and the two most prominent papers on the internet are from the past three years. One of those papers, Fitzgerald et al. 2012, describes a set of remains from Australia that constitutes the first group of remains of Pelagornis discovered in Australia. More recently there have been studies conducted on the growth of  the characteristic pseudoteeth of Pelagornis. The structure of the pseudoteeth are described in detail. That structure is rather intriguing and makes for a very interesting read.

Birds and Thunder

©Nobu Tamura

In general, native peoples of both South and North America have a number of legends and mythologies describing giant flying animals. From the Thunder Bird (a generic term that encompasses a wide range of mythological figures from different tribes) to Tah-tah-kle'-ah (a race of cave dwelling "owl women" from Yakama lore) to Achiyalatopa (from Zuni folklore), native peoples have been influenced by the idea of giant birds flying across the sky. In some instances these are giant bird-men/women but regardless of the anthropomorphizing of giant birds, these legends could have been influenced by real living animals. One such giant flying bird has been discussed here before (See Pelagornis). Another giant bird, more often associated with the southern hemisphere but by no means entirely limited to that hemisphere, was Argentavis magnificens (Magnificent Argentinian/Silver Bird). Flying through the skies during the Late Miocene and known, at present at least, from only Argentina, Argentavis possessed a wingspan of approximately 6.07 m (19.9 ft) and 72 kg (159 lb) by the greatest estimates. This makes it the second largest flying bird ever known behind Pelagornis. In comparison to living birds, the largest wingspan is that of the Wandering Albatross at 3.65 m (12 ft) and the heaviest (sustained) flyer is the Kori Bustard at 11.4 kg (25.1 lb). At this size Argentavis must have flown much like Pelagornis; flapping powered flight may have gotten it airborne but thermal soaring would have been the most likely model for sustained flight.

Drawing A Bird

©Kelly Lance

When you have teeth or pseudoteeth soft prey are almost always on the menu. Typically, as we mentioned earlier this week, Pelagornis is shown eating fish or simply soaring above the waves. In fact, fish catching pictures are even rather rare with this bird. However, Pelagornis eating a squid is a novel illustration. Remember, the bird is enormous and the squid, therefore, is also extremely large, though not a giant squid still by any means. Grasping the squid like this Pelagornis would be able to easily keep a squirming slippery cephalopod in its beak while re-positioning the catch while trying to swallow the animal.

News and Aerodynamics

Computer voiced descriptions of the giant bird Pelagornis rule the day on the movie Monday. However, the Smithsonian Channel has a well put together video on the aerodynamics of Pelagornis on YouTube. Today we will let the Smithsonian, and more importantly Daniel Ksepka, do the talking:

Making It in Video Games

The most popular culture savvy reference for Pelagornis, other than from the Smithsonian Channel, is from ARK. The game has brought many fossil animals into the spotlight in recent times. The information file is, as it has been for many extinct animals, posted online with commentary and narration.

Additionally, there is a very nice video from James Gurney that shows and describes his process in illustrating the bird for Scientific American and the oil board version called Giants of the Sky. His process is intricate and detailed and it produces fantastic artwork.

Ignore the Placement

The problems with bird fossils exted far beyond the crushed and fragmentary remains that they are composed of. This fragmentary nature leads to many hypotheses of relationships and uncertain positions within the group. This includes the recently announced material related to ostriches and the fact that the tree, based on genetics, morphology, or whatever else, is in continual flux these days. That being said, we can approach our fossil for this week knowing that we are going to mention the family and genus without going into too much detail on hypothesized positions in the group. Regardless, the largest of bird genera needs very little more than itself to be intriguing enough to discuss. Having pseudoteeth also makes this giant fossil rather intriguing. Described in 1857 by Lartet, the genus Pelagornis consists of four currently recognized species; P. miocaenus Lartet, 1857, P. mauretanicus Mourer-Chauviré and Geraads, 2008, P. chilensis Mayr and Rubilar, 2010 and P. sandersi Ksepka, 2014. All four species have pseudoteeth and the wingspan of P. chilensis is estimated to be the second largest of the four at 17 feet from wingtip to wingtip. Compare this the albatross (and an eagle and  pigeon), one of the largest extant seabirds, above. The species P. sandersi is estimated to have had a wingspan at least seven feet longer (that is 24 feet folks). We can compare that to even more extant birds, because it is amazing.