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OnDaFence 36M/44M
44267 posts
12/13/2017 9:09 pm

Last Read:
12/17/2017 3:50 pm

Giant Penguin



Fossils from New Zealand have revealed a giant penguin that was as big as a grown man, roughly the size of the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins.



The creature was slightly shorter in length and about 20 pounds (9 kilograms) heavier than the official stats for hockey star Sidney Crosby. It measured nearly 5 feet, 10 inches (1.77 meters) long when swimming and weighed in at 223 pounds (101 kilograms).

If the penguin and the Penguin faced off on the ice, however, things would look different. When standing, the ancient bird was maybe only 5-foot-3 (1.6 meters).



The newly found bird is about 7 inches (18 centimeters) longer than any other ancient penguin that has left a substantial portion of a skeleton, said Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. A potentially bigger rival is known only from a fragment of leg b, making a size estimate difficult.



The biggest penguin today, the emperor in Antarctica, stands less than 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall.


Gerald Mayr

Mayr and others deribe the giant creature in a paper released Tuesday by the journal Nature Communications. They named it Kumimanu biceae, which refers to Maori words for a large mythological monster and a bird, and the mother of of the study's authors. The fossils are 56 million to 60 million old.

That's nearly as old as the very earliest known penguin fossils, which were much smaller, said Daniel Ksepka, curator at the Bruce Museum of Greenwich, Connecticut. He has studied New Zealand fossil penguins but didn't participate in the new study.



The new diovery shows penguins "got big very rapidly" after the mass extinction of 66 million ago that's best known for killing off the dinosaurs, he wrote in an email.

That event ed a big role in penguin history. Beforehand, a non-flying seabird would be threatened by big marine reptile predators, which also would compete with the birds for food. But once the extinction wiped out those reptiles, the ability to fly was not so crucial, opening the door for penguins to appear.


Daniel Ksepka

Birds often evolve toward larger sizes after they lose the ability to fly, Mayr said. In fact, the new paper concludes that big size appeared more than once within the penguin family tree.

What happened to the giants?

Mayr said researchers believe they died out when large marine mammals like toothed whales and seals showed up and provided competition for safe breeding places and food. The newcomers may also have hunted the big penguins, he said.

OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/13/2017 9:17 pm

I HOPE that is team captain Sidney Crosby I see the "C" on his uniform... I am not a big Penguins fan...


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/13/2017 9:18 pm

Today has just been fucked for me.... Ruby dashed out and had to go with me to the bank and shopping.


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/13/2017 9:22 pm

I drove JD's fucking old Jaguar because I didn't want Ruby tracking dirt in my car... The battery (JUST out of warranty) fucking died on me with the dog behind the bank... JD sent John with a pickup and jumpers to save my ass.


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/13/2017 9:24 pm

Luckily I called JD ealy enough to get help on the way... He dropped his phone in the shit later and I couldn't get ahold of him to ask him what he wanted for dinner swince I was running late..


jrodd 65M
4396 posts
12/14/2017 2:13 am

Don't wear a tuxedo near it, It might wanta mate with you !


bychance4709 61M

12/14/2017 2:18 am

and what were you doing BEHIND the bank?!?!?! Is that where deposits & withdrawals happen???


bychance4709 61M

12/14/2017 2:20 am

where do you find the time to find all the pictures to go with your blogs? I read this story on the net - but it didn't have any pictures save for the first one. I applaud you for all the work/research you do on your blogs.


Hungr4Yungr 75M
5766 posts
12/14/2017 7:28 am

Great job on this story,Bret. I have always had a fascination with penguins, and now my interest is piqued even higher.

Sorry to hear about Hump Day turning sour for both you and JD. I hope that last night made up for it.


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/14/2017 9:25 am

    Quoting jrodd:
    Don't wear a tuxedo near it, It might wanta mate with you !
I wonder if it was as cold in those areas for the penguins back then so you'd need an overcoat?


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/14/2017 9:29 am

    Quoting bychance4709:
    and what were you doing BEHIND the bank?!?!?! Is that where deposits & withdrawals happen???
The angle parking is back there and easier than the parallel parking in front.


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/14/2017 9:32 am

    Quoting bychance4709:
    where do you find the time to find all the pictures to go with your blogs? I read this story on the net - but it didn't have any pictures save for the first one. I applaud you for all the work/research you do on your blogs.
I dig around and find them.. The picture of Dr Mayr was about the size of a postage stamp and I had to resize it so you could even see how handsome he is. In fact the vast majority of pictures have to be resized , only one of the seven were big enough to be posted without resizing.


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/14/2017 9:38 am

    Quoting Hungr4Yungr:
    Great job on this story,Bret. I have always had a fascination with penguins, and now my interest is piqued even higher.

    Sorry to hear about Hump Day turning sour for both you and JD. I hope that last night made up for it.
JD sometimes gets a little pushy and I tend to resist PUSHY and demanding.


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/14/2017 8:19 pm

    Quoting  :

LOL... No Virg.. too many security cams...


mral65 58M
366 posts
12/14/2017 8:24 pm

That be one big ass penguin!


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/15/2017 12:19 am

    Quoting mral65:
    That be one big ass penguin!
It might just decide to chase down and eat the tourists if it were around today.


jrodd 65M
4396 posts
12/17/2017 4:16 am

Hp Lovecraft " At the Mountains of Madness " a story in antartica of giant penquins grotesque weird underground Cthulu city of octopus star beings.


OnDaFence 36M/44M

12/17/2017 3:50 pm

    Quoting jrodd:
    Hp Lovecraft " At the Mountains of Madness " a story in antartica of giant penquins grotesque weird underground Cthulu city of octopus star beings.
that's not in this ballpark