Human-sized 'monster penguin' may have weighed more than 175 pounds
Thanks a lot, scientists, for finding this fossil and destroying our Hollywood images of cutie-wooty little penguins.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Aw, penguins. So cute, so sweet, so tiny. Wait -- back up, there. Turns out penguins weren't always the pet-sized birds we think of today.
The Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, blew all our visions of adorable little penguins out of the Arctic water on Wednesday by sharing a super creepy image of a new species of giant penguin that stood about 5 feet, 2 inches (1.6 meters tall) The museum dubbed it a "monster penguin" (properly IMO) and said it has been identified from fossils found in Waipara, North Canterbury.
Meet the monster penguin identified from fossils found in Waipara, North Canterbury. Standing about 1.6 metres tall and...
Posted by Canterbury Museum on Tuesday, August 13, 2019
"Monster penguin" is a pretty good name, but the penguin's previously unknown species is now known as Crossvallia waiparensis, and it dates from the Paleocene Epoch (between 66 and 56 million years ago). It's one of the world's oldest-known penguin species, the museum says, and may have weighed over 175 pounds (80 kilograms).
The museum says Leigh Love, an amateur paleontologist, found the bones in 2018.
"The discovery by a research team including Canterbury Museum curators adds to the list of gigantic, but extinct, New Zealand fauna," a representatives for the museum posted on Facebook. "These include the world's largest parrot, a giant eagle, giant burrowing bat, the moa (an extinct flightless bird) and other giant penguins."
"Monster penguin" fans can check out a 3D model of the bird online.
It's not known why the giant penguin species disappeared, but paleontologist Gerald Mayr told the BBC that one possible reason could be the rise of large marine mammals such as toothed whales and seals.
The fossils will be displayed at the museum later this year.
