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Fish swam for their lives when they encountered a dour , ancient " monster " penguin that would have loom over today ’s large penguin , the emperor , a new subject field finds .
The fresh draw aquatic beast , dubbedCrossvallia waiparensis , measure out 5 foot , 3 inches ( 1.6 meters ) tall , about the height of an grownup charwoman . It press up to 176 lbs . ( 80 kilo ) , compact on the Sudanese pound as it hunted aquatic prey around ancient New Zealand during thePaleocene epoch , 66 million to 56 million years ago .
The newly discovered ancient penguin would have stood about 5 feet, 3 inches (1.6 meters) tall, or about the height of an adult woman.
But while this newfound metal money was huge , it is n’t the bombastic penguin on phonograph recording . That laurels goes to the 37 - million - class - oldPalaeeudyptes klekowskii , which stand an impressive 6.5 fundament ( 2 m ) magniloquent and weighed 250 lbs . ( 115 kilogram ) .
Related : picture : These Animals Used to Be Giants
Amateur palaeontologist and study co - researcher Leigh Love found fossilized leg castanets of the newfound penguin in the town of Waipara , located in Canterbury , New Zealand . This region is a hot spot of giant , ancient animals . Other banging , but now out , creature notice there let in theworld ’s largest parrot , a giant eagle , a giant burrow bat , the moa ( a giant , flightless hoot ) and five other penguin species .
Study researchers Vanesa De Pietri, Paul Scofield and Gerald Mayr look at aCrossvallia waiparensisfossil at Canterbury Museum in New Zealand.
The emperor penguin ( Aptenodytes forsteri ) was a shrimp compared withC. waiparensis . The innovative bird stands between 3 and 3.9 foot ( 0.9 and 1.2 thou ) grandiloquent . But the emperor is just a distant relative of the newly identify creature . C. waiparensis’sclosest known relative isCrossvallia unienwillia , which also last during the Paleocene but in Cross Valley , Antarctica . Though the nation hoi polloi are freestanding today , New Zealand and Antarctica were connected during the Paleocene , the researcher say .
" When theCrossvalliaspecies were alert , New Zealand and Antarctica were very different from today — Antarctica was covered in forest and both had much warmer clime , " contemplate aged research worker Paul Scofield , the fourth-year curator of Natural chronicle at Canterbury Museum in New Zealand , say in a instruction .
Moreover , the leg bones of bothCrossvalliapenguins are starkly dissimilar from those of advanced penguins . Anatomical survey indicate thatCrossvaliaeither used their feet more in swim than do modern penguin , or that the ancient birds had n’t yet conform to standing upright , as today ’s penguins do .
The discovery ofC. waiparensisand other large penguin go out to the Paleocene epoch offer more evidence that penguin became Brobdingnagian briefly after the extinction of the nonavian dinosaurs about 66 million years ago , cogitation conscientious objector - research worker Vanesa De Pietri , a research conservator of Natural chronicle at Canterbury Museum , enunciate in the argument .
It ’s no wonder , either , asbeing big has huge advantagesfor marine birds , aver Daniel Ksepka , a curator at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich , Connecticut , who was not involve in the research .
" In general , the great an beast gets , the more efficient they become at conserve body oestrus ( very authoritative in penguin ) and diving deeper and for longer menstruation of time , " Ksepka told Live Science in an email . " Large size also open up new prey options and protects them from small predators . "
So why are today ’s penguin small ? It ’s not totally clean , but full , old - fashioned competition for quarry and dominion might partially excuse why penguins are no longer the giant behemoths they once were .
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" palaeontologist are still function on this interrogation , but a big factor could be the emanation of pinnipeds ( seals and kin ) , who start spread around the oceans about the same time jumbo penguin start disappearing , " Ksepka said . " They may have clashed with penguins not only as predatory animal and competition for standardised prey but also monopolise bringing up grounds want for nesting colonies . "
The new subject was published online Aug. 12 in the journalAlcheringa : An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology . The ancient skirt ’s dodo , as well as those of other giant penguin , will go on showing at Canterbury Museum later on this yr .
Originally published onLive Science .
