I know other people asked this question before. But they didnt give a clear answer. In what way has our ecosystem changed that something like this has now become impossible?
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Depending on what you mean with big it’s not that’s impossible per se, but it is disadvantageous. Biggest flying bird has about 3 meters wingspan. If you mean big like the Quetzalcoatlus (12 m wingspan) there are a couple reasons. First on average there is less vegetation now than when dinosaur megaphauna roamed the earth. Less oxygen and food for big erbivores favor smaller animals. Smaller prey means only smaller carnivores can hunt enough to sustain themselves so most animals are smaller. Notable exceptions are marine mammals because the abundance of their food. In general in the modern ecosystem most species organize in packs or herds and are individually smaller. This makes them more capable of adapting to environmental changes. that Big birds are either scavengers, birds of prey or far travelling sea birds. Scavengers need to be big enough to scare other terrestrial smaller scavengers away from the carcass. Birds of prey need to be big enough to kill small mammals which they usually hunt and migrating birds can’t be too heavy in relation to their wingspan so that they can travel very long distance with minimal effort
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