Giant Prehistoric Penguin Fossil Found in New Zealand

Paleontologists have found the fossil remains of a giant prehistoric penguin that lived about 59 to 56 million years ago (Paleocene epoch) in what is now New Zealand.

Artististic reconstruction of the Paleocene giant penguin Kumimanu biceae. Image credit: Senckenberg Research Institute.

The giant penguin’s remains were found in the Otago region on New Zealand’s South Island.

“Age datings reveal that the bird lived during the Late Paleocene, about 59 to 56 million years ago. The fossils are therefore among the oldest known penguin remains, and it is remarkable that even these early forms reached an enormous size,” said Dr. Gerald Mayr, from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany.

From those bones, Dr. Mayr and colleagues estimated the species would have stood 1.7 m (5.6 feet) tall and weighed as much as 100 kg.

“We examined the wing and leg bones of this penguin and quickly realized that we were looking at a previously unknown species,” Dr. Mayr said.

“Named Kumimanu biceae, the new discovery counts among the largest fossil penguin species, only surpassed in body size by a fossil species from Antarctica, which, however, is only known from very fragmented remains.”

The partly prepared skeleton of Kumimanu biceae. The rectangles emphasize the humerus and a bone from the shoulder girdle (coracoid), which are shown separated from the original bone cluster. Image credit: Senckenberg Research Institute.

The paleontologists also demonstrated that phylogenetically, Kumimanu biceae represents a rather archaic species, which is clearly differentiated from the giant penguins known to date from the geologically younger epochs of the Eocene and Oligocene.

“Kumimanu biceae shows that gigantism was not rare among early penguins, even at the earliest stage of their evolution,” Dr. Mayr noted.

According to the team, this gigantism developed as a result of the seabirds’ flightlessness. This raises the question why no penguin giants are alive today.

“Giant penguins developed shortly after the mass extinction near the end of the Cretaceous period, approximately 66 million years ago,” the researchers said.

“It is possible that the disappearance of large marine reptiles enabled the penguins to explore new ecological niches.”

“However, with the subsequent appearance of other large marine predators such as seals and toothed whales, the penguins faced new competition and predation — which may have led to their extinction.”

The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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Gerald Mayr et al. 2017. A Paleocene penguin from New Zealand substantiates multiple origins of gigantism in fossil Sphenisciformes. Nature Communications 8, article number: 1927; doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01959-6