Re: large fossil birds

[Patrick Norton <ptnorton@suscom-maine.net>]

"Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Ian Paulsen wrote:
>
> > I was wondering if anyone had info on the largest fossil bird species 
> > (including the Cenozoic) currently known?<<
>
> I believe the "largest" bird would be _Dromornis stirtoni_ of Australia, 
> estimated at over 3m tall and weighing around half a tonne. <

It depends on what you mean by "largest" and what you mean by "bird". 
Sticking to the Cenozoic, if one is talking about mass, I think Tim is 
right. Ground dwelling birds such as Dromornis reportedly weighed in at 
about 500 kg (reference misplaced), with Aeptyornis and Dinornis weighing in 
around 438 and 230 kg, respectively (Campbell & Marcus, 1991).   If you look 
at wingspan, however, the largest Cenozoic bird reported so far is 
Argentavis magnifcens, based on an estimated wingspan of 6.5-7.5 meters 
(Campbell & Tonni, 1980) and a mass of 79.8 kg (Campbell & Tonni, 1983).

All bets are off if you push this back into the Mesozoic, however....

PTN