Largest-known fossil penguin provides insight into the early evolution of sphenisciform body size and flipper anatomy ...

• Main Authors: Ksepka, DT, Field, DJ, Heath, TA, Pett, W, Thomas, DB, Giovanardi, S, Tennyson, AJD
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2023
• Subjects: 31 Biological Sciences; 3103 Ecology; 3104 Evolutionary Biology; 37 Earth Sciences; 3705 Geology; New Zealand; Aptenodytes forsteri
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.88503; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/341076

AbstractRecent fossil discoveries from New Zealand have revealed a remarkably diverse assemblage of Paleocene stem group penguins. Here, we add to this growing record by describing nine new penguin specimens from the late Paleocene (upper Teurian local stage; 55.5–59.5 Ma) Moeraki Formation of the South Island, New Zealand. The largest specimen is assigned to a new species, Kumimanu fordycei n. sp., which may have been the largest penguin ever to have lived. Allometric regressions based on humerus length and humerus proximal width of extant penguins yield mean estimates of a live body mass in the range of 148.0 kg (95% CI: 132.5 kg–165.3 kg) and 159.7 kg (95% CI: 142.6 kg–178.8 kg), respectively, for Kumimanu fordycei. A second new species, Petradyptes stonehousei n. gen. n. sp., is represented by five specimens and was slightly larger than the extant emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri. Two small humeri represent an additional smaller unnamed penguin species. Parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses ...