Re: large fossil birds

[Michael Mortimer <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>]

The largest Mesozoic volant bird was Enantiornis leali, at about a meter 
long.  You won't find anything over the Cenozoic mass limit (~550 kg) for 
birds in the Mesozoic without invoking Utahraptor, Deinocheirus or the 
larger therizinosaurs.

Mickey Mortimer

> The biggest terrestrial bird from the Mesozoic bird is perhaps the 
> presumably flightless _Gargantuavis_ or a similar-sized French bird 
> (unnamed, but also from the LK), around the size of an ostrich - but there 
> may be hesperornithiforms that were bigger (=heavier in this context) - I'm 
> not sure.  I don't know what the largest volant Mesozoic bird was, but it 
> may be the soaring _Sapeornis_ - but even this was only around the size of 
> a gull.  There might have been larger enantiornithines by the LK.
>
> Cheers
>
> Tim