Ancient penguins used to live in hot countries

The distant cousins ​​of today's giant sized penguins and living in warm climates in Peru 30 million years ago. One of the ancient birds has a beak 17.7 cm long and 1.5 m high.

The complete skeleton and two skulls show that these birds living in this warm climate are excellent divers and can " fly " in the water and hunt fish on the way.

"We often think that penguins are those who live in cold countries. But new fossils come from the warmest phase in the past 65 million years of earth history. Evidence shows that penguins have moved to the region. the climate is 30 million years earlier than previously thought, "said lead researcher Julia Clarke at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science.

Clarke and colleagues studied the corpses of two extinct penguins discovered in 2005 on the southern coast of Peru. Giant giant Icadyptes salasi lived 36 million years ago. The second species Perudyptes devriesi , about 0.7 - 0.9 m tall, represents the oldest known penguin species, lived about 42 million years ago.

Unlike today's penguins, the ancient oversized bird has a long and pointed beak, in which Perudyptes has a special long and pointed beak, which helps them to eat large prey.

Currently, there are 17 species of penguins including small petals like green penguin weighing 0.9 kg, 0.4 m high to emperor penguins weighing 38 kg and 1.3 m high.

Unlike today's penguins (left), ancient oversized birds (right)
with a long and pointed beak (Photo: LiveScience)

The skull of the penguin Icadyptes salasi (above) appeared in Peru 30 million years ago
The year has a long beak, comparable to the dead-end bird living in Peru today.
(Measure 1cm) - (Photo: LiveScience)

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