Wellington (AFP)
The fossil of a penguin measuring almost the size of an adult man was discovered in the South Island in New Zealand, scientists said Wednesday.
This giant seabird, dubbed "crossvallia waiparensis", was 1.6 m tall and weighed 80 kg, making it 40 cm larger and four times heavier than the current Emperor penguin, they said. He lived in the Paleocene, 66 to 56 million years ago.
Bones from one leg of this giant bird were found last year by an amateur fossil hunter. The existence of a new species was confirmed this week in a publication of the journal "Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology".
This is the second giant Penguin fossil found in the same area, said Vanesa De Pietri, a researcher at the Canterbury Museum. "This reinforces our theory that penguins reach large sizes early in their evolution," she said.
New Zealand is known for its giant extinct birds, such as moa (Dinornis), which died in the late eighteenth century, the largest bird - unable to fly - that ever existed with 3, 60 m high for some 200 kg, or the Haast eagle nearly three meters wide.
Last week, the Canterbury Museum announced the discovery in New Zealand of the remains of a giant parrot that measured nearly one meter in height, weighed up to 7 kg and lived 19 million years ago.
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