A penguin that crossed the ice 60 million years ago would have destroyed the penguins of the king and emperor today, according to the Associated Press. As identified by fossils recently discovered in New Zealand, the extinct species was 5 feet 10 inches while swimming, exceeding the height of an adult moth.
The find, which the authors cite as the most complete skeleton of a penguin of this size to date, is described in a recent study published in Nature Communication. When standing on land, the penguin would have measured 5 feet 3 inches, still a foot taller than today’s largest penguins at the highest altitude. Researchers estimated that he weighed about 223 pounds.
Fossils from New Zealand have revealed a giant penguin the size of a grown man, about the size of a Pittsburgh Penguins captain.https: //t.co/phlLq2Y8wh pic.twitter.com/1YJCfWHBAx
– Walt Zwirko (@KTENwalt) December 12, 2017
Kumimanu biceae, a name derived from Maori words for “monster” and “bird” and the mother name of one explorer, who last walked the Earth between 56 million and 60 million years ago. That puts him among the old penguins, which began to emerge shortly after the extinction of giant aquatic reptiles – along with the dinosaurs – leaving room for flightless carnivorous birds to enter the sea.
The prehistoric penguin was a giant, even compared to other penguin species of the age, but it was probably not the largest penguin that ever lived. A few years ago, paleontologists discovered 40-million-year-old fossils that were said to belong to a penguin that was 6 feet 5 inches long from beak to tail. But that estimate was based on just a couple bones, so his own size may have been different.
[h/t AP]