Question 1

How do you say Pelagornis?

Accepted Answer

Pelagornis is pronounced peh-LAG-or-nis. The trick is to put the stress on the second syllable, LAG, and say it like the word lagoon without the oon. Break it into four beats: peh, LAG, or, nis, and you have it. Scientists and museum curators say it this way, and now so can you.

Question 2

What does Pelagornis mean?

Accepted Answer

The name Pelagornis comes from two Greek words. Pelagios means of the open sea, referring to the deep ocean far from shore, and ornis means bird. So the full name simply means sea bird. It is a fitting name because Pelagornis almost certainly spent most of its life soaring over open ocean, just like modern albatrosses do today.

Question 3

How big was Pelagornis?

Accepted Answer

Pelagornis sandersi had a wingspan of up to 24 feet, which is roughly 7.3 meters, making it the largest flying bird ever discovered. For comparison, the wandering albatross, the biggest flying bird alive today, has a maximum wingspan of about 11.5 feet. P. sandersi more than doubled that record. Its body was estimated to weigh somewhere between 48 and 88 pounds, though scientists are still refining that estimate.

Question 4

Did Pelagornis have teeth?

Accepted Answer

Pelagornis had something that looked a lot like teeth but were not true teeth at all. They were bony spikes that grew directly from the jawbone itself, which is why the whole group is called pseudotooth birds, meaning false-tooth birds. These sharp spikes worked like a fish trap, preventing slippery prey from escaping once caught. No living bird today has anything quite like them.

Question 5

Could Pelagornis actually fly?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but barely. Computer modeling by paleontologist Daniel Ksepka in 2014 showed that P. sandersi was right at the physical limit of what a flying bird can weigh. It probably could not just flap its wings and lift off from flat ground. Instead, it likely needed to run downhill, catch a strong headwind, or launch from a cliff, similar to how a hang glider needs elevation to get started. Once airborne, though, it would have been an incredibly efficient soarer.

Question 6

What did Pelagornis eat?

Accepted Answer

Pelagornis was a carnivore that most likely ate fish and squid snatched from the ocean surface. Its long, hooked beak and the rows of bony pseudoteeth lining its jaws were perfectly designed for grabbing and holding onto slippery, struggling prey. Scientists think it hunted similarly to modern albatrosses and petrels, swooping low over the water and plucking prey from just below the surface during fast gliding passes.

Question 7

Where was Pelagornis found?

Accepted Answer

Fossils of Pelagornis have been found on nearly every continent, including the United States, Peru, Chile, Australia, Venezuela, and the Western Sahara region of Africa. The most famous fossil, belonging to P. sandersi, was dug up in 1983 during construction at Charleston International Airport in South Carolina. The global spread of fossils tells scientists that Pelagornis was an ocean wanderer capable of crossing entire ocean basins.

Question 8

When did Pelagornis go extinct?

Accepted Answer

The Pelagornis genus survived for an extraordinarily long time, appearing in the fossil record around 37.7 million years ago during the Oligocene Epoch and persisting all the way to the Early Pleistocene, about 2.58 million years ago. That is a run of more than 35 million years. Scientists are not entirely certain what caused their extinction, but changing ocean conditions, sea level shifts, and possibly competition from other marine predators during the Pleistocene are considered likely factors.

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