This Massive Scientific Discovery Sat Hidden in a Museum Drawer for Decades

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The fossil was a prehistoric bird called Pelagornis sandersi, and its wings stretched out twice as wide as those of the great albatross.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week I want to take you bird watching, but I'm not talking about an ordinary passer-ine
0:21.6	peep show.
0:22.6	We are skipping the songbirds.
0:25.4	It's a no-fly zone for hawks and raptors.
0:28.8	Butterfell throwing the towel.
0:36.1	The birds were going to meet.
0:38.1	They're not like anything you've ever peeped.
0:43.8	They used to peak as an axe to kill prey.
0:46.8	Oh my god.
0:49.8	So just imagine the largest thing you've ever seen alive flying.
0:53.9	They are colossal around 1,900 pounds.
0:58.6	The eggs would have been about 150 times the size of chicken egg.
1:05.8	Two feet for feathers, which is, that's a big feather.
1:09.2	Most people think ostrich and they think that's big, but actually they were real giants
1:15.0	around it one day.
1:17.9	We are talking about birds that weighed as much as a sports car.
1:21.9	Birds who are the top predators of their day, prowling the jungle and devouring animals
1:27.0	the size of small horses.
1:29.6	Birds so gargantuan that you could mistake them for an airplane.
1:35.8	And yet these birds have kind of flown under the radar of paleontology, at least compared
1:40.4	with many dinosaurs.
1:42.0	These winged whoppers are mysterious and scientists are learning more about them every day.
	...

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