Penguins are much older than previously thought and their evolution
probably dates back to the days of the dinosaurs, according to research
on fossilised remains in Canterbury Museum.
The leg bone and toes from a giant ancient penguin were found by an amateur collector in rocks near Waipara.
A study by Dr Gerald Mayr, of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany, and Canterbury Museum scientists Professor Paul Scofield and Dr Vanesa De Pietri has been published in the The Science of Nature.
The researchers estimate the penguin was about 1.50m tall and say the find is one of the oldest penguin fossils in the world, dating back 61 million years.
The bones differ substantially from previous penguin finds of a similar age and show that the variety of Palaeocene penguins, living between 66 and 56 million years ago, was greater than previously thought.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11806668
The leg bone and toes from a giant ancient penguin were found by an amateur collector in rocks near Waipara.
A study by Dr Gerald Mayr, of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany, and Canterbury Museum scientists Professor Paul Scofield and Dr Vanesa De Pietri has been published in the The Science of Nature.
The researchers estimate the penguin was about 1.50m tall and say the find is one of the oldest penguin fossils in the world, dating back 61 million years.
The bones differ substantially from previous penguin finds of a similar age and show that the variety of Palaeocene penguins, living between 66 and 56 million years ago, was greater than previously thought.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11806668
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