Giant penguin fossils found in Peru

THE fossilised remains of a giant tropical penguin have been uncovered by paleontologists. The extinct creature was at least 1.5m taller than even the emperor penguin, and had the longest beak ever known among the aquatic birds.

It would have swum in tropical waters 36 million years ago during one of the warmest periods on Earth since the death of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Researchers were astonished by the size of the penguin, especially the beak, which, at 18cm, is more than twice as long as the rest of its skull.

Remains of the Icadyptes salasi were unearthed on the southern coast of Peru along with another previously unknown, ancient tropical penguin, Perudyptes devriesi, which was alive 42 million years ago.

Until the fossils were found, penguins had been thought to have first swum in low-latitude equatorial waters 10 million years ago. But the new discoveries have put back the date by about 30 million years.

The two fossilised penguins, the most complete and among the earliest discovered, are casting new light on the how the features of modern penguins evolved, and when and where they were distributed in the oceans.

Their appearance in equatorial waters took place long before the world started to cool, from about 34 million years ago, to the point where ice-caps formed at the poles.

Julia Clarke, of North Carolina State University in the US, was one of the team of scientists from Peru, Argentina and the US who studied the fossils, which were discovered in 2005.

She said: “We tend to think of penguins as being cold-adapted species – even the small penguins in equatorial regions today.

“But the new fossils date back to one of the warmest periods in the last 65 million years of Earth’s history.

“The evidence indicates that penguins reached low-latitude regions more than 30 million years prior to our previous estimates.”

The two fossil penguins are thought to have evolved in separate parts of the world before swimming to the warmer equatorial waters, said the researchers, who reported their findings online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The giant penguin is believed to have developed near New Zealand while Perudyptes devriesi, which at about 3ft was approximately the size of a modern king penguin, originated from Antarctica.

Both of the new species had the long, narrow beaks shared by modern penguins. The researchers say that the fossils showed that it was the ancestral design for all penguins, albeit “grossly elongated” in the giant. Other features that evolved, and the age and distribution of the two species, were such that the research team rewrote the penguin family tree after analysing the fossils.

Despite the two extinct species showing a willingness to leave the cooler waters of the high, southern latitudes, Dr Clarke cautioned against assuming that modern penguins will be able to cope with the warmer temperatures predicted through climate change today.

“These Peruvian species are early branches of the penguin family tree – comparatively distant cousins of living penguins,” she said.

“In addition, current global warming is occurring on a significantly shorter timescale. The data from these new fossil species cannot be used to argue that warming wouldn’t negatively impact on living penguins.”

OK. I promise I'm going to drop this, before the joke gets any older, but before I do ... Can you figure out which pedicure belongs to which Laurel?

This is Laurel the Penguin, named after Laurel the Person, who gave her to me at the dinner party at Patty & AB's house. I believe Laurel brought Laurel back from her trip to Antarctica, but I don't know that for sure. Laurel the Penguin is a cuddler. Cuddling is not generally approved of in my office, but it seems that no one can resist.

Tuxedo came home from NTC in DC with me, and has joined our staff. He's been trying to preach the virtues of open source software to my coworkers, and he's been finding it frustrating. Try explaining Joomla! to someone who doesn't know what HTML is, or going off on Linux only to find out your coworker doesn't understand what an OS is. I thought he was going to lose it when someone asked, "Isn't Windows part of the computer?" but he's amazingly patient.

He's also learning about Minnesotans. We road on two buses together, and nobody seemed to notice there was was a 3' 6" penguin on the bus.

Anyway, Tux has become a real part of the team, offering tips and filling in wherever he can. He's also spreading his penguin love around the office, and moral is up.

When I opened my door this morning, this guy was waiting outside my hotel. He comes up to about 4 feet high. He's feeling a bit deflated about the traveling, but he will be better when we get home. Saturday is Penguin Day in DC. The good folks at Aspiration and PICNet had been canvassing the Nonprofit Technology Conference asking people for their first names and room numbers. Personally, I thought it was a great pick-up strategy. I mean, you have everyone's room number, and at the end of the day you knock on the door of whoever you are in the mood for. Heather, from Aspiration, explained that actually we would just receive gifts, but didn't explain what or why. We found the penguins waiting outside our doors Friday morning. (I think they finished delivering them (200 in all) around 4 a.m.) Thanks to everyone who did this. It was really amazing.)

More penguin photos on Flickr.

Penguins Prepare