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posted by janrinok on Wednesday December 13 2017, @03:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the penguin-was-stoned dept.

A fossilized partial skeleton of an ancient giant penguin has been described:

The remnants of an ancient penguin that stood as tall as a grown man have been found encased in rock on a beach in New Zealand.

Fossil hunters chanced upon the prehistoric bones in sedimentary rock that formed 55 to 60 million years ago on what is now Hampden beach in Otago on the country's south island.

Measurements of the partial skeleton show that the flightless bird weighed about 100 kilograms and had a body length of 1.77m (5ft 10in), equal to the average height of an American man. Emperor penguins, the tallest penguin species alive today, reach only 1.2m when fully grown.

[...] The pieces of the latest skeleton, including wing, spine, breast and leg bones, were first discovered more than a decade ago, but the rock holding the fossilised bones was so hard that it has taken until now for researchers to prepare and study the remains.

Also at NYT and LA Times.

A Paleocene penguin from New Zealand substantiates multiple origins of gigantism in fossil Sphenisciformes (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01959-6) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:36PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:36PM (#609251)

    Am I alone in wanting to give it a hug?

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:57PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday December 13 2017, @04:57PM (#609267) Journal

    It could be a good hug, but it might be the penguin species most likely to beat you up (if it still existed or was resurrected by geneticists).

    How about mammoth [sciencemag.org] riding [theguardian.com]?

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  • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday December 13 2017, @08:42PM

    by istartedi (123) on Wednesday December 13 2017, @08:42PM (#609360) Journal

    Probably not; but I'm guessing its instincts would be to peck your eyes out.

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