Biggest penguin in history was 'monster bird,' weighed over 300 pounds

A group of world researchers announced nan find of what whitethorn person been nan largest penguin ever to person lived. 

Recent fossil findings led to nan announcement of Kumimanu fordycei, a caller type collected from nan Otago region of New Zealand. Notably, Kumimanu is simply a operation of nan Maori words for "monster" and "bird."

A study was published successful nan Journal of Paleontology connected Wednesday, besides announcing different caller extinct penguin type known arsenic Petradyptes stonehousei.

The Paleocene era fossils were collected from a formation successful Otago connected New Zealand's South Island. According to a merchandise from nan University of Otago, nan fossils were discovered successful 57-million-year-old formation boulders successful North Otago by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa curator Alan Tennyson betwixt 2016 and 2017.

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An artist’s conception of Kumimanu and Petradyptes penguins connected an ancient New Zealand beach. The larger of nan 2 weighed almost 350 pounds and is nan heaviest penguin known to science. (Simone Giovanardi)

The investigation shows nan Petradyptes stonehousei was somewhat larger than nan extant emperor penguin. Two mini humeri recovered besides correspond an further smaller unnamed penguin species. 

The authors said that nan sizes of Kumimanu fordycei and Petradyptes stonehousei bespeak that penguins were very ample early successful their evolutionary history, earlier they fine-tuned their flipper apparatus. 

An emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) pictured successful its enclosure astatine Loro Parque zoo.  ((Photo by Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images))

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To estimate nan size of nan species, nan squad measured hundreds of present-day penguin bones, calculating a regression utilizing flipper bony dimensions to foretell weight. Kumimanu fordycei weighed astir 340 pounds. 

A formed of Kumimanu’s humerus, left, created from 3-D scans, alongside a humerus of an emperor penguin. (Daniel Ksepka)

"A bigger penguin could seizure larger prey, and much importantly it would person been amended astatine conserving assemblage somesthesia successful acold waters. It is imaginable their size allowed nan earliest penguins to dispersed from New Zealand to different parts of nan world," Daniel Ksepka, lead writer and a paleontologist astatine nan Bruce Museum successful Greenwich, Connecticut, said successful a statement.

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Ksepka told The New York Times connected Wednesday that Kumimanu fordycei's tallness is estimated to beryllium astir 5 feet, 2 inches tall.