Fossil albatross discovery in Belgium

This video from Australia says about itself:

A rare visit to Albatross Island in NW Tasmania, breeding ground for the Shy Albatross.

Today, albatrosses live only in the southern hemisphere and the northern Pacific (except for a lone albatross on Bass Rock in Scotland which had lost its way).

Ecomare museum in the Netherlands reports that millions of years ago, albatrosses used to live in the north Atlantic as well.

In the Netherlands, an albatross bone of a few million years old has been found.

Still older, 30 million years, is a find from Terhagen village near Antwerp in Belgium. Albatross fossil bones, the oldest ones in Europe, were discovered there over a century ago. Only now they have been studied; they got the name Tydea septentrionalis.

Why did albatrosses become extinct in the north Atlantic we still don’t know. Maybe the Ice Age caused problems for the birds?

Sub-tropical waters important but risky for non-breeding southern Albatrosses: here.