A young species of ancient elephantine penguin appraise 1.6 cadence ( 5.2 foot ) improbable has been key from fogy found in North Canterbury , New Zealand . go steady back to the Paleocene Epoch between 66 and 56 million year ago , Crossvallia waiparensisjoins the ranks of other regional megafauna – such as theworld ’s largest parrot , giant burrow bat , and themoa – as the oldest known and one of the largest penguins to ever roam the major planet .
Publishing their findings inAlcheringa : An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology , researchers examine fossils key out in marine deposits at the Waipara Greensand Site . Four other species of giant ancient penguins have been discovered here , with the first recovery being more than 30 years ago , create the land site substantial for understanding the evolution of penguins over ten of million of years .
" The fossils pick up there have made our understanding of penguin organic evolution a whole lot clearer , " said study carbon monoxide gas - author Gerald Mayr , from the Senckenberg Natural History Museum , in astatement . " There ’s more to come , too – more fossils which we recall symbolize new mintage are still awaiting description . "
Altogether , five species of giant penguin of motley sizes have been reported from Waipara Greensand , with even more to add up .
An depth psychology of the bones advise thatC. waiparensisis most closely related toCrossvallia unienwillia , another gargantuan species that lived during this fourth dimension whose partial skeleton was uncover in Antarctica in 2000 . Both bird had unequalled understructure that suggest swimming played a much larger role in their lives than those of advanced penguins . Either that or they had n’t yet adapt to resist upright like the waddling bird we know today . Together , the two help scientists bridge gaps in understanding evolutionary lineages of ancient coinage , specially in recounting to those from New Zealand and its icy neighbor to the Dixie .
" When the Crossvallia mintage were alive , New Zealand and Antarctica were very different from today – Antarctica was covered in woodland and both had much warmer clime , ” say survey author Paul Scofield , a Canterbury Museum curator .
Because penguin from dissimilar regions expose unlike size , the researchers save that separatism and competitor at breeding land site likely played a role in their phylogeny and giant - sized adaptations . But there were n’t many species of gargantuan penguins at the clip , suggesting that competition with other maritime mammals likely drove the giant penguin to extinction .
The remains ofC.waiparensiswill be displayed in an exhibit later this year at theCanterbury Museum in New Zealand .
