Palaeontology

Giant 6ft penguins once roamed the Earth

By T.K. Randall
August 3, 2014 ·  21 comments

The species would have dwarfed today's penguins. Image Credit: NSF/Josh Landis Today's emperor penguins might seem large at up to 4ft in height, but 40 million years ago the Antarctic was home to a species of giant penguin that grew up to 6ft tall, larger than the average size of a human adult.

Known as Palaeeudyptes Klekowskii, the gigantic birds are thought to have weighed up to 115 kilos and roamed the island of Seymour off the Antarctic Peninsula.Like modern penguins the species was likely to have been adept at catching food in the ocean and was capable of holding its breath for up to 40 minutes.

Palaeeudyptes was also thought to have lived at a time when the climate was a lot warmer than it is today and may have shared its island home with as many as 14 other penguin species.

Source: Metro | Comments (21)

Tags: Penguin