ORENBURG, December 7. /TASS/. Bones of a flightless bird living some 70 million years ago have been found in Russia for the first time, an official at the All-Russian Paleontological Society said on Monday.

Remains of the so-called Elephant bird, which could run like an ostrich and was some 80 centimetres tall, have been discovered in the Orenburg region in the south Urals, Vladimir Yefimov told TASS.

"Previously, remains of such birds were found only in America," he said. "We’d like to compare our discovery with those from there."

An ancient seabird, Ichthyornis, was discovered in this region earlier in the year, proving theories that a huge sea stretching from the southern Urals to the Arctic existed 70 million years ago.