World's biggest-ever flying bird identified

Washington: Scientists have identified the largest flying bird known to have ever lived - an extinct giant with a wingspan of up to 24 foot, more than twice the size of the largest living flying bird.

The creature surpassed size estimates based on wing bones from the previous record holder - a long-extinct bird named Argentavis magnificens - and was twice as big as the Royal Albatross, the largest flying bird on Tuesday. The findings show that the creature was an extremely efficient glider, with long slender wings that helped it stay aloft despite its enormous size.The fossil was first unearthed in 1983 near Charleston, South Carolina. The specimen was so big they had to dig it out with a backhoe. "The upper wing bone alone was longer than my arm," said author Dan Ksepka of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina. Now in the collections at the Charleston Museum, the strikingly well-preserved specimen consisted of multiple wing and leg bones and a complete skull.Its sheer size and telltale beak allowed Ksepka to identify the find as a previously unknown species of pelagornithid, an extinct group of giant seabirds known for bony tooth-like spikes that lined their upper and lower jaws. Named 'Pelagornis sandersi', the bird lived 25 to 28 million years ago.