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Human-Sized Penguins Once Roamed New Zealand

Accepted submission by takyon at 2017-12-12 21:00:44
Science

A fossilized partial skeleton of an ancient giant penguin [theguardian.com] 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 [nytimes.com] and LA Times [latimes.com].

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


Original Submission