Antarctica fossil is oldest known fragment from 'truly gigantic' group of ancient birds with 6m wingspan

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A fossil discovered in Antarctica represents the oldest known example of a “truly gigantic” group of albatross-like birds which lived in the period following the dinosaurs’ extinction, according to a new scientific paper. New analysis of the foot fossil discovered in the 1980s suggests that pelagornithids evolved giant bodies early in their reign over Earth’s southern oceans, according to experts from the University of California at Berkeley, the San Diego Natural History Museum and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. “Our fossil discovery, with its estimate of a 5m-to-6m wingspan – nearly 20 feet – shows that birds evolved to a truly gigantic size relatively quickly after the extinction of the dinosaurs and ruled over the oceans for millions of years,” said Mr Kloess. “This updated fossil record of pelagornithids on Seymour Island reinforces the ideas that along with penguins and paleognaths, pelagornithids were a common and even a dominant avian clade throughout the Eocene of Antarctica, and potentially competed with other soaring birds for foraging and nesting spaces.”