March of the Giant
Penguins: Fossils Reveal Early Penguins Reaching 5 Ft.
Tall Lived Near the Equator During One of Earth’s
Warmest Periods
June 25, 2007. Source: News
Releases. North Carolina State University
Media Contact: Tracey Peake, News Services, 919/515-6142
Giant prehistoric penguins? In Peru? It sounds more like
something out of Hollywood than science, but a
researcher from North Carolina State University along
with U.S., Peruvian and Argentine collaborators has
shown that two heretofore undiscovered penguin species
reached equatorial regions tens of millions of years
earlier than expected and during a period when the earth
was much warmer than it is now.
Paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke, assistant professor of
marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State with
appointments at the North Carolina Museum of Natural
Sciences and the American Museum of Natural History, and
colleagues studied two newly discovered extinct species
of penguins. Peruvian paleontologists discovered the new
penguins’ sites in 2005.
The research is published online the week of June 25 in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was
funded by the National Science Foundation Office of
International Science and Engineering and the National
Geographic Society.
The first of the new species, Icadyptes salasi,
stood 5 feet tall and lived about 36 million years ago.
The second new species, Perudyptes devriesi,
lived about 42 million years ago, was approximately the
same size as a living King Penguin (2 ½ to 3 feet tall)
and represents a very early part of penguin evolutionary
history. Both of these species lived on the southern
coast of Peru.
These new penguin fossils are among the most complete
yet recovered and call into question hypotheses about
the timing and pattern of penguin evolution and
expansion. Previous theories held that penguins probably
evolved in high latitudes (Antarctica and New Zealand)
and then moved into lower latitudes that are closer to
the equator about 10 million years ago – long after
significant global cooling that occurred about 34
million years ago.
“We tend to think of penguins as being cold-adapted
species,” Clarke says, “even the small penguins in
equatorial regions today, but the new fossils date back
to one of the warmest periods in the last 65 million
years of Earth’s history. The evidence indicates that
penguins reached low latitude regions more than 30
million years prior to our previous estimates.”
The new species are the first fossils to indicate a
significant and diverse presence of penguins in
equatorial areas during a period that predates one of
the most important climatic shifts in Earth’s history,
the transition from extremely warm temperatures in the
Paleocene and Eocene Epochs to the development of
“icehouse” Earth conditions and permanent polar icecaps.
Not only did penguins reach low latitudes during this
warmer interval, but they thrived: more species are
known from the new Peruvian localities than inhabit
those regions today.
By comparing the pattern of evolutionary relationships
with the geographic distribution of other fossil
penguins, Clarke and colleagues estimate that the two
Peruvian species are the product of two separate
dispersal events. The ancestors of Perudyptes appear to
have inhabited Antarctica, while those of Icadyptes may
have originated near New Zealand.
The new penguin specimens are among the most complete
yet discovered that show us what early penguins looked
like. Both new species had long narrow pointed beaks –
now believed to be an ancestral beak shape for all
penguins. Perudyptes devriesi has a slightly longer beak
than seen in some living penguins but the giant
Icadyptes salasi exhibits a grossly elongated beak with
features not known in any extinct or living species.
This species’ beak is sharply pointed, almost spear-like
in appearance, and its neck is robustly built with
strong muscle attachment sites. Icadyptes salasi is
among the largest species of penguin yet described.
Although these fossils seem to contradict some of what
we think we know about the relationship between penguins
and climate, Clarke cautions against assuming that just
because prehistoric penguins may not have been
cold-adapted, living penguins won’t be negatively
affected by climate change.
“These Peruvian species are early branches off the
penguin family tree, that are comparatively distant
cousins of living penguins,” Clarke says. “In addition,
current global warming is occurring on a significantly
shorter timescale. The data from these new fossil
species cannot be used to argue that warming wouldn’t
negatively impact living penguins.”
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