A team of researchers names this new species and confirms the theory that New Zealand is the place of origin of penguins.
In 2006, children were looking for fossils at a New Zealand summer camp when they found the skeleton of a giant penguin.
Massey University Researchers, about New Zealand, and the Bruce Museum, In the United States, they visited the Waikato Te Whare Taonga or Waikato Museum, the site of the discovery, to analyze the penguin’s fossil bones with a 3D scanner. The results were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology a few months ago.
One of the researchers who participated in the study, Daniel Ksepka, along with the giant fossilized penguin. Source: Daniel Ksepka
New Zealand: Origin of Penguins
One of the authors, Daniel Thomas, explained that this fossil is between 27.3 and 34.6 million years old. Furthermore, it comes from a time when much of the Waikato region was underwater.
The team called it “a new species of giant penguins” and called it kairuku waewaeroa, which in Maori refers to its long limbs.
O Aptenodytes forsteri or the Emperor Penguin can reach up to 1.2 meters, so this discovered species would be a little bigger. Longer legs would have made you much taller than others kairuku and it would be a 1.4 meter tall penguin. It could also have influenced how fast it could swim or how deep it could dive, added Thomas. Experts think the beak was also too long and shaped like a spear.
Kairuku waewaeroa. Source: Daniel Ksepka
The team noted that this finding reminds us that we’ve shared animal lineages for a long time and confirms the theory that the penguins originate in New Zealand.
“It was a privilege to discover this huge penguin fossil”
One of these children, then 13 years old, is now president of the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club, Mike Safey. He said he and his friends will remember this for the rest of their lives.
Safey indicated that it was rare but a privilege to have the opportunity to discover this huge penguin fossil. They always encourage young people to explore and enjoy the outdoors because there are so many cool things waiting to be discovered.
the discovery of kairuku waewaeroa serves scientists to continue advancing studies on the evolution of penguins.
REFERENCES
A giant fossil penguin from the Oligocene of the North Island of New Zealand
