Giant seabird's fossilized skull found in Peru

[Judi Lynn]

Feb 27, 9:18 PM EST

Giant seabird's fossilized skull found in Peru

By ANDREW WHALEN
Associated Press Writer

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- The unusually intact fossilized skull of a giant, bony-toothed sea bird that died millions of years ago was found on Peru's arid southern coast, researchers said Friday. The fossil is the best-preserved cranium ever found of a pelagornithid, a family of large seabirds believed to have gone extinct some 3 million years ago, said Rodolfo Salas, head of vertebrate paleontology at Peru's National History Museum.

The museum said in a statement that the birds had wingspans of up to 20 feet (6 meters) and may have used the toothlike projections on their beaks to prey on slippery fish and squid. But studying members of the Pelagornithidae family has been difficult because their extremely thin bones - while helpful for keeping the avian giants aloft - tended not to survive as fossils.

"Its fossils are very strange, very rare and very hard to find," Salas told The Associated Press.

The cranium discovered in Peru is 16 inches (40 centimeters) long and is believed to be 8 million to 10 million years old, based on the age of the rock bed in which it was found.

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_PERU_FOSSIL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-02-27-21-18-15

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1. recommend for the strange and wonderful world we live in. nt

[Judi Lynn]

2. Fossil of 10 million-year-old bird found in Peru

Fossil of 10 million-year-old bird found in Peru
'Pakistan Times' Monitoring Desk


LIMA (Peru): Paleontologists working in Peru have found a fossil from a bird that lived 10 million years ago, scientists said on Friday after returning from the dig site on the country's desert coast.

The species of bird had a wing span of 19.7 feet and fed mostly on fish from the Pacific Ocean. It first appeared 50 million years ago and was extinct about 2.5 million years ago because of climate change, paleontologist Mario Urbina of Peru's Natural History Museum said.

Scientists discovered a rare fossil of the bird's head in Ocucaje, in the Ica region of Peru's southern coast, where an arid climate has preserved many fossils.

"The cranium of the bird, from the Pelagornithidae family, is the most complete find of its kind in the world. Its fossil remains are hard to find," Urbina said.

More:
http://pakistantimes.net/2009/03/01/top10.htm