Giant penguins may have lived at the same time as dinosaurs

In the Science of Nature article, researcher Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Institute (Germany) claims that the fossil skeleton found by an amateur paleontologist on the bank of the Vaipara River in New Zealand is the lower limb of a giant penguin, once lived 61 million years ago.

Experts from the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand and the Senckenberg Institute in Frankfurt are currently studying the fossil skeleton believed to be the lower limb of that giant penguin.

The newly discovered giant penguin also has the characteristic of moving the characteristic penguins of modern penguins.

According to the researchers, it will be one of the oldest known penguins. Giant penguin bones are significantly different from the bones of the same age penguins discovered, suggesting that in the Paleocene century, penguins are more diverse and richer than we thought before. here.

The newly discovered giant penguin also has the characteristic of moving the characteristic penguins of modern penguins. It is a gait like a bird of a cormorant.

The ancient penguin named Latin is Waimanu manneringi . According to paleontologists, the height of birds reached 1-1.5m, nearly as high as Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi , the largest fossil penguin known today living in Antarctica 45 to 33 million years ago with height. 1.5-1.8m. While the height of the largest modern penguin is emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) equivalent to an average of about 122cm.

Dr. Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Institute explained: "Penguins have reached a very large body size in the early stages of evolutionary history and much more diversity in the period of 60 million years ago. This diversity indicates that penguins may have appeared in the dinosaur era 65 million years ago. "