Saturday, November 6, 2010

Pink Dinosaur #217

Pink Argentavis by David Tana

26 – Argentavis magnificens – the giant teratornithid was, quite possibly, the largest volant bird that ever lived.  Known from several Late Miocene (~ 6 mya) sites in Argentina, it probably relied on soaring and gliding, rather than flapping to keep it in the air. The reference for this cranial restoration comes from an image in the paper by Chatterjee et al. (2007) titled “The aerodynamics of Argentavis, the world’s largest flying bird from the Miocene of Argentina” from the journal PNAS of the USA. Color pencil on paper.

Learn more about the Pink Dinosaur Cancer Fundraiser here