There’s a whole bunch of now-extinct prehistoric beasts that should absolutely stay that way. The Megalodon for instance. Fuck that right off. Today, science has discovered yet another ‘monster’ creature that existed when the Earth was a far more volatile place; a penguin. But not just a penguin, a penguin that was 1.6m tall and 80kg.
That’s roughly about the size of your average adult human woman and approximately a whole head and shoulders taller than the emperor penguin, which clocks in between 0.9 and 1.2m on average. The giant penguin, titled Crossvallia waiparensis, is thought to have populated New Zealand, where the remains were discovered, throughout the Paleocene epoch, or around 66 million to 56 million years ago. This pinpoints its existence briefly after the reign of the dinosaurs and potentially explains how they got to be so large, given there wasn’t too much else left to hunt them.
Interestingly enough, it’s understood the species also populated Antarctica’s Cross Valley which was made physically possible by the fact that New Zealand and Antarctica were at one point connected by a land bridge.
“When the Crossvallia species were alive, New Zealand and Antarctica were very different from today says Paul Scofield, the senior curator of Natural History at Canterbury Museum in New Zealand in a statement. “Antarctica was covered in forest and both had much warmer climates.”
The different climate is evident in the discovery. The giant penguin was found to have used its feet differently from modern penguins. As per Live Science, it’s believed they either used their feet more for swimming than walking or standing up right.
While C. Waiparensis is impressively large, it isn’t the largest penguin ever discovered. That title goes to Palaeeudyptes klekowskii which was dated back to 37-million years ago and measured a cool 2m flat
Amateur palaeontologist and study co-researcher Leigh Love discovered the fossils in Waipara, NZ. It’s not the first such discovery in the area, which is prone to holding the remains of several ‘giant’ animal species including a giant eagle, a giant burrowing bat and the world’s largest parrot.
