Pelagornis sandersi

Now that’s a big bird! When he asks you how to get to Sesame Street, you tell him and add “sir!” to the end. The fossilized remains of what scientists are calling the largest flying bird ever found were dug out in 1983 in Charleston, South Carolina, by workers building a new terminal for the Charleston International Airport, and were so big the workers had to use a backhoe. A recent study of the fossils by paleontologist Dan Ksepka has identified the bird as a newly discovered species of pelagornithid, an “extinct group of giant seabirds known for bony tooth-like spikes that lined their upper and lower jaws.” The bird was named ‘Pelagornis sandersi‘ in honor of Charleston Museum curator Albert Sanders, who led the excavation of the bird, which was a much more scientific option than filling in the hole with cement and never speaking of the creature again. P. sandersi soared the skies 25 to 28 million years ago over the stretch of ocean that would eventually recede to become Charleston. It