Such a time would be almost completely unrecognizable to humans living today, with crocodiles swimming through the Arctic, pine trees in the Antarctic, and palm trees throughout what are now the Midwestern states. The massive birds would have also enjoyed much warmer weather than Antarctica currently experiences, with temperatures closer to what modern-day South America, Tierra del Fuego in particular, has grown accustomed to.Ĭolossus penguins likely died out in the midst of the Eocene period (55.8 to 33.9 million years ago), a widely defined period that is marked by the appearance of early horses, deer, cattle, sheep and rhinoceroses. The Colossus penguin, officially known as the Palaeeudyptes klekowski, is believed to have been able to stay underwater hunting fish for 40 minutes at a time. An example is the colossus penguin which weighed over 250 pounds. Perhaps not surprisingly, the larger a penguin is, the deeper it can dive. Weve compiled a list of the largest penguin species found throughout the oceans. “They’re not the only penguins that lived between 34 and 37 million years ago, which is the age of these remains, but we also know that between 10 to 14 species, depending on differing opinions, existed on the shores of Antarctica.” “What they have in particular and which is striking is the size, because even though we already knew that there were giant penguins in Antarctica, these bones are really much larger than any other bones we knew of from penguin fossils,” Hospitaleche said, as quoted by South Africa’s News 24. REUTERS/Martin PassinghamĪrgentinian archaeologists have unearthed fossils revealing that Antarctica was once home to Colossus penguins that weighed up to 250 pounds and stood as tall as 6 feet 7 inches, the largest species ever to waddle the earth.Ĭarolina Acosta Hospitaleche, of La Plata Museum in Argentina, shared her research with New Scientist magazine, explaining that 37 million to 40 million years ago was “a wonderful time for penguins, when 10 to 14 species lived together along the Antarctic coast.” The bones in question were found earlier this year on Seymour Island (the chain of islands closest to the southern tip of South America) and suggest that the bird stood two meters high from the tip of its beak to its toes, twice the size of the Emperor penguins that currently rule the frozen region. It had a slightly smaller height of 1.5m.At nearly 7 feet tall, the Colossus penguin, which waddled across Antarctica some 40 million years ago, stood twice as tall as Emperor penguins (pictured here). P klekowskii is not the only giant prehistoric penguin to be discovered - in 2007 of a penguin species known as Icadyptes salasi, was found in Peru, living 36m years ago. In prehistoric times, the region was warmer with 10 to 14 different penguin species living together. Unlike the majority of European writers who have written on this subject, writes historian Niall. The bones were found at the La Meseta formation, Seymour Island, which is part of the Antarctic peninsula with a wide range and abundance of penguin bones. A penguin the size of Palaeeudyptes klekowskii could stay underwater for up to 40 minutes. Standing normally, beak down, the penguin would have be around 1.6m tall, the team reported in the journal Geobios.īy comparison, the tallest and heaviest living species, the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), stands 1.1m high and weighs just under 50kg.īeing of a larger build has its advantages, as bigger penguins could dive underwater to hunt fish for significantly longer periods of time compared to smaller species. The unearthed bones are 37mn years old and include the longest recorded fused ankle-foot bone as well as parts of a wing bone.įrom those bones, researchers estimated the species would have stood 2m tall from toe to beak tip, and weighed as much as 115kg. Palaeeudyptes klekowskii has already been dubbed the “colossus penguin”, and is the most complete fossil ever uncovered from the Antarctic. Remains of Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, dubbed the colossus penguin, indicate that these birds would have weighed in at 250 pounds (115 kg) and stood about 6 feet 7 inches (2 m) tall, measured from toe to beak tip. It was until recently thought to have been approximately the size of its congener Palaeeudyptes antarcticus, which would mean it was somewhat larger than the modern emperor penguin, but a new study shows it was in fact almost twice as tall. A penguin species that lived millions of years ago would have dwarfed today’s biggest living penguins and stood as tall as most humans, according to analysis of fossils by a team of researchers from the La Plata Museum in Argentina. Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, also known as the colossus penguin, was a species of the extinct penguin genus Palaeeudyptes.
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