Fossils paint the picture of gorilla-sized penguins that once roamed New Zealand | 24CA News

Fifty million years in the past, New Zealand was dwelling to penguins that stood as tall as people and weighed as a lot as grownup gorillas. 

Scientists have found fossils of the most important penguin identified so far, thought to have weighed between 148 and 160 kilograms (300 and 340 kilos). 

“It totally blew me away the first time I saw it,” lead examine creator Daniel Ksepka instructed Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald. “This thing was gigantic. It makes an emperor penguin look kind of like a little tiny robin.”

In a brand new examine printed within the Journal of Paleontology, scientists recognized two new species of penguins based mostly on fossils embedded in rocky formations on the Otago seashores of New Zealand’s South Island: Kumimanu fordycei and Petradyptes stonehousei. 

Both species are thought to have existed round 55 to 59 million years in the past throughout the Paleocene period. 

Researchers in contrast the fossils to the bones of 20 fashionable penguin species to be taught extra in regards to the historical water birds. “We probably would recognize it as a penguin, but it would have been quite distinct from the little fellows we see in zoos and aquariums today,” stated Ksepka, who’s a curator on the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn.

Only a few bones belonging to the enormous Okay. fordycei — named after New Zealand paleontologist Ewan Fordyce — had been found. But they had been sufficient to provide researchers a clue about its look. 

“We measured hundreds of penguin bones from modern species to try to estimate the body mass [of the ancient penguins]. And we arrived at a total of about 340 pounds, which is just kind of mind-blowing. I mean, imagine a penguin the size of a gorilla,” Ksepka stated. 

Emperor penguins, the most important species alive right this moment, weigh about 40 kilograms (90 kilos) which makes Okay. fordycei almost 4 instances heavier. 

The smaller of the 2 newly found species P. stonehousei — named after biologist Bernard Stonehouse — additionally outweighs the fashionable emperor penguin, weighing in at 50 kilograms.

Mystery of the vanishing penguin giants

According to Ksepka, the Paleocene birds’ flippers extra carefully resembled the wings of flying birds, which made them much less environment friendly swimmers than their fashionable counterparts. But their spectacular measurement would have helped them dive deeper and preserve heat within the water for longer durations of time.

But being gorilla-sized additionally got here with disadvantages. “If resources are scarce, a smaller penguin will be able to get a day’s meal much easier than a gigantic species,” Ksepka stated.

He factors to useful resource competitors as a probable motive why penguins right this moment are a lot smaller. Fossil information level to massive penguins beginning to vanish round 15 million years in the past, the time when pinnipeds like seals and sea lions had been spreading extensively all through the southern hemisphere. 

“They could be competing for food. They could be bothering the penguins — eating them is one very good way to bother them. But also monopolizing breeding grounds,” Ksepka stated. 

“You imagine one of these giant penguins trying to lay eggs and then, all of a sudden, two elephant seals are fighting over territory and just crushing everything around them.”

There’s nonetheless a lot to be taught in regards to the big Paleocene penguins. Scientists have not discovered the skulls of both of Okay. fordycei or P. stonehousei, to allow them to solely guess what their heads would have regarded like based mostly on beforehand found bones of penguin species in the identical period. 

But one factor is for certain for Ksepka. “These would have been a breathtaking sight when they were alive,” he stated. 

Written and produced by Olsy Sorokina.