Recently Scientists discover fossil of giant 150 kg penguin

Scientists discover fossil of giant 150 kg penguin

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Today's tiny tuxedo-clad penguins were once giants. Don't believe us? Well, a new study has revealed this amazing information. A flightless bird that weighs an average of 22 to 45 kilograms today was once 154 to 159 kilograms; This makes it three times the weight of the emperor penguin, the largest member of the species today. A now-extinct penguin species, called Kumimanu fordici or K fordici, lived in New Zealand about 57 million years ago, which means they existed a few years after the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the planet. The findings of an international team of researchers have been published in the Journal of Paleontology

Fossils of this penguin and other species were discovered a few years ago, between 2016 and 2017. They were among 57-million-year-old beach boulders in North Otago on the South Island of New Zealand.

Based on fossils discovered in New Zealand, researchers have also reported another species of penguin. It is called Petradiptes stonehousei and is estimated to have weighed around 50 kilograms.

Dr. of Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "Many early fossil penguins attained enormous sizes, easily dwarfing the largest penguins alive today," Daniel Field, who co-authored the paper, said of the discovery.

The Kumimanu fordicei fossil that researchers discovered is incomplete, and according to Field, this, along with its sheer size, "makes it one of the most interesting fossil birds ever discovered."

Researchers have yet to locate the bird's leg bones, but they estimate it to have been about five feet and four inches (5'4").

He said the penguin "at about 350 pounds, would have weighed more than Shaquille O'Neal at the peak of his dominance," would have been "an absolutely stunning sight on the beaches of New Zealand 57 million years ago."

Both penguins reportedly lived at the same time and had primitive features such as thin flipper bones and muscle attachment points that apparently resemble those of flying birds.