According to a new study, the monster penguins that lived in New Zealand 62 million years ago had doppelgangers in Japan, the United States, and Canada.
For the study published Monday in the Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, the scientists identified similarities between the fossilized bones of penguins and those of a much younger group of birds in the northern hemisphere, known as plotopterids.
These similarities suggest that plotopteridae and ancient penguins were quite similar and could give scientists an idea of how birds began to use their wings to swim instead of fly.
The earliest known penguins swam in tropical seas that almost submerged the land we now know as New Zealand. Paleontologists discovered the fossilized bones of these ancient waddlers, some of whom were as large as 5 feet tall, in Waipara, North Canterbury.
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Giant penguins, such as these Kumimanu, who lived in Aotearoa, New Zealand, about 60 million years ago, bore a striking resemblance to some plotopterids.
(Mark Witton)
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Plotopterids developed in the northern hemisphere about 37 to 34 million years ago, the researchers say, and have been found at sites in North America and Japan.
When scientists compared the fossilized bones of the plotopteridae with the fossils of the giant penguin species from the Canterbury Museum collection, they found that they both had similar long beaks with nostrils, chest and shoulder bones, and wings.
“The amazing thing about all of this is that ancient plotopterids and penguins developed these shared characteristics independently,” Vanessa De Pietri, curator of the Canterbury Museum, said in a statement. “This is an example of what we call convergent evolution, when related distant organisms develop similar morphological features under similar environmental conditions.”
Although they shared these physical traits with ancient and modern penguins, plotopterids are more closely related to gannets and cormorants than to penguins.
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Plotopterids like these Copepteryx grew to enormous sizes.
(Mark Witton)
“These birds evolved in different hemispheres, millions of years apart, but from a distance you would be hard-pressed
Giant penguins, such as these Kumimanu, who lived in Aotearoa, New Zealand, about 60 million years ago, bore a striking resemblance to some plotopterids.
(Mark Witton)
to distinguish them, “said Paul Scofield, a curator at the Canterbury Museum.” The polypeptides looked like penguins, they swam like penguins, they probably ate like penguins, but they were not penguins. “
