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title: "Were albatrosses smaller in the past?  A new ancestral form from Antarctica"
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# Were albatrosses smaller in the past?  A new ancestral form from Antarctica

Carolina Hospitaleche (CONICET, La Plata, Argentina) and Javier Gelfo have published in the journal *[Historical Biology](http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghbi20/current)* on an old bird bone from Antarctica.

 The paper’s abstract follows:

 “New remains from the La Meseta (Thanetian – Lutetian) and Submeseta (Lutetian – Rupelian) formations (Seymour Island, Antarctica) are tentatively assigned to Diomedeidae and Procellariidae (Procellariiformes).  Based on the fossil record and several analyses that attempt to explain the evolutionary patterns of Diomedeidae, *Notoleptos giglii* gen. et sp. nov., based on a small tarsometatarsus, was an ancestral form that lived in Antarctica before the rise of large-sized albatrosses.  Subsequent environmental cooling since the late Oligocene could have selected against small body size, to the detriment of small-sized albatrosses like *Notoleptos*, thus favoring large body size and setting the stage for the development of the specialized albatross flight.”

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Logos/download.jpg)

 **Reference:**

 Hospitaleche, C.A. & Gelfo, J.N. 2016.  Procellariiform remains and a new species from the latest Eocene of Antarctica.  [*Historical Biology* doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2016.1238470](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2016.1238470).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 November 2016*