Pelagornis sandersi is a species of extinct flying bird with a wingspan estimate

d to be between 6.1 and 7.4 m (20 and 24 ft).[1][2] If the larger estimated wing
span holds true, this makes it the largest flying bird yet discovered, with a wi
ngspan twice as large as the living flying bird with the largest wingspan, the w
andering albatross.[2]
In this regard, it supplants the former largest known flying bird, Argentavis ma
gnificens (which is also extinct). A. magnificens' wingspan, without feathers, w
as about 4.0 m (13.1 ft), while that of P. sandersi was about 1.2 m (4 ft) longe
r.[3] P. sandersi's fossil remains date from 25 million years ago, during the Ch
attian age of the Oligocene.[4] It had short, stumpy legs, and was probably able
to fly only by hopping off cliff edges. It has been estimated that it was able
to fly at up to 60 km/h (37 mph).[5]
Some scientists expressed surprise at the idea that this species could fly at al
l, given that, at between 22 and 40 kg (48 and 88 lb), it would be considered to
o heavy by the predominant theory of the mechanism by which birds fly.[6] Dan Ks
epka of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina, wh
o discovered the new species, thinks it was able to fly in part because of its r
elatively small body and long wings,[7] and because it, like the albatross, spen
t much of its time over the ocean, where the bird relied on wind currents rising
up from the ocean to keep it aloft