#fossil penguin

[drhoz]

#2780 - Waimanu manneringi

The name of the genus comes from the Māori wai for "water" and manu for "bird". The epithet honours Al Mannering who found and collected the first specimen in 1980. A second species, Waimanu tuatahi, was moved to Muriwaimanu in 2018. There were at least two other species of early penguin in the Basal Waipara Greensand, too.

A large (1m) extinct penguin from around 62–60 million years ago, when bird diversity was exploding after the extinction of all the non-avian dinosaurs. The extinction of all the carnivorous marine reptiles was probably a nice opportunity, too.

University of Otago Geology Museum, Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.

[drhoz]

Waimanu, the first penguin

How long have penguins been around?  I suspect that most people would respond that they seem relatively young, in the grand scheme of things

"These early penguins inherited a world in which a reset button had been firmly pressed. It was warm, rather homogenous in temperature across most of the latitudinal gradient, and most importantly, nearly every major niche was hung generously with “help wanted” signs."

[drhoz]

March of the Fossil Penguins

Fossil penguin discoveries and research

[drhoz]

#2781 - Kairuku sp.

Kairuku comes from the Māori words kai (“food”) and ruku (“to dive”).

One of three (maybe four) giant penguin species in the genus. Each of the species has been found in the Kokoamu Greensand, a late Oligocene layer that also has fossils of at least nine other extinct penguin species. At the time Aotearoa was a few small islands surrounded by shallow seas, which must have been ideal for penguins given the variety. Kairuku were big enough to swim out past the edge of the shallow seas and dive into much deeper water, if comparisons to the Emperor Penguin are anything to go by.

The first Kairuku fossils were discovered in the 1940s by New Zealand zoologist and paleontologist Dr. Brian J. Marples but were not immediately recognized as a new species as they were few poorly preserved pieces of the wing. Nearly complete skeletons were later found by Dr. Ewan Fordyce in 1977. The holotype of Kairuku waewaeroa was discovered in 2006 by a group of school children on a Junior Naturalist Club (JUNATS) fossil hunting field trip in Kawhia Harbour.

Kairuku grebneffi were nearly 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long and stood 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) tall. The unnamed Glen Murray fossil penguin may have been even bigger.

University of Otago Geology Museum, Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.