Scientists have discovered the remains of the largest penguin that has ever lived

A team of researchers have described a new species of giant penguin that lived off the coast of New Zealand about 60 million years ago and found it to be the largest ever.

The results of a study conducted and published by an international team of scientists based on the found fossil remains revealed the existence of a very diverse set of penguins refers to the stem group of the Paleocene.

The team that published their results in the Journal of Paleontology included researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Museum New Zealand Te Papa Tongareva, who discovered 57-million-year-old fossils in coastal cliffs in North Otago, on the South Island New Zealandin the period from 2016 to 2017.

The studies now completed add to those already published in 2017, when scientists already confirmed that on the coasts New Zealand they lived penguins giants, the size of an adult, between 55 and 65 million years ago.

These fossils were found in 2004 at Hampden Beach, in the Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island, and scientists have confirmed they will be the largest ever, much larger than an “emperor penguin”. the largest of the living, measuring only 1.22 meters and weighing 23 kilograms.

new species

A new study has identified new, even larger species that lived in the same area at the end of the Paleocene, between 55.5 and 59.5 million years ago, according to a Cambridge University publication.

The largest specimen has been assigned to a new species (Kumimanu fordycei), which scientists say may be the largest ever, as measurements of the length and width of the humerus from the fossils found give a body mass estimate of up to 159 kilograms.

The researchers also discovered a second new species (Petradyptes stonehousei), represented by five specimens, much smaller than those previously described, but much larger than the “emperor” living today.

The University of Cambridge indicated in a press release that these two recently described species show that penguins they became very large early in their evolutionary history, millions of years before they fine-tuned their fin apparatus.

The team found that the two species retained primitive features, such as thinner fin bones and muscle attachment points, that resemble those of flying birds.

The researchers note that to justify the gigantic size of these penguinsthe likelihood that this size would make them much more efficient in the water.

(As reported by EFE)

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