Recently, The Guardian published a list of the "Top Fossil Discoveries of 2017," and one of the fossils that made the list was that of the bombshell Halszkaraptor. It was among the greatest finds of any paleontologists all year — a bird-like theropod dinosaur with a few characteristics similar to those of a penguin to some extent. In addition to finding penguin characteristics this early in earth's history, though, researchers in Beijing found penguin inhabitance of East Antarctica to be about 6,000 years older than was previously established as well. A new study found that the penguin of 60 million years ago, however, towered over even the largest penguins known to man today.
Chinese scientists worked in East Antarctica on and recently published their findings from Xinhua. Their study compounds with the findings of other studies in that it found penguins to be there much earlier than initially realized. The Halszkaraptor escuilliei, according to the original research, had a long neck that accounted for "50% of the total snout-to-tail length and the longest for any Mesozoic theropod dinosaur, is reminiscent of that seen in some birds, particularly swans. Halszkaraptor forms a new group of dromaeosaurids, the Halszkaraptorinae, and its unusual morphology suggests a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Its flattened wing bones are also seen in penguins and other aquatic birds, and the large number of teeth indicate that it was a predator."
Some 60 million years ago, an actual penguin was found to be comparable in size to the average, adult male or refrigerator according to Associated Press. Authors of the study say they finally found the first complete skeleton of one such penguin according to the study published in Nature Communications. On land, the penguin likely weighed about 223 pounds and stood to about 5 feet 3 inches. The 60-million-year estimate means the bird was one of the earliest known, ancient penguins in history. Paleontologists had already found 40-million-year-old fossils a few years ago, and they claimed a preponderance of evidence that the penguin fossils they found then belonged to a penguin 6 feet 5 inches long from tail to beak.
Texas reporter and digital content producer for KTEN News based in Denison, Walt Zwirko, quipped in the immediate aftermath of the story's publication, "Fossils from New Zealand have revealed a giant penguin that was as big as a grown man, roughly the size of the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins." New York-based print, digital and e-commerce media corporation, mental_floss, reported on the story in detail. "Kumimanu biceae, a name that comes from the Maori words for 'monster' and 'bird' and the name of one researcher's mother, last walked the Earth between 56 million and 60 million years ago.
"That puts it among the earliest ancient penguins," continues Michele Debczak, Mental Floss science writer, "which began appearing shortly after large aquatic reptiles — along with the dinosaurs — went extinct, leaving room for flightless carnivorous birds to enter the sea." The prehistoric species may not have been the largest penguins ever discovered, but they mark a new milestone in the evolution of penguins that is also far larger than even the emperor penguins and king penguins that dominate the modern penguin family size-wise.
The research conducted by Chinese scientists in the Vestfold Hills of East Antarctica observed deglacial sediment, which the experts date back about 15,600 years. Penguin excrement was in the sediment along with dirt, and they date that back about 14,600 years. This suggests that penguins migrated there some 1,000 years after the melting of the ice sheet. From that point forward, the population just continued to grow. The findings of that particular study prove significant for understanding how seabird breeding grounds in polar regions evolved, and that also informs the last deglaciation — an event about which scientists can never seem to accrue enough information.
The year 2017 also saw several other significant discoveries about penguins. For instance, more research in New Zealand illustrates that penguins travelled much longer distances than ever known before, and more was gleaned about penguins establishing habitats very efficiently in the Antarctic during winter months, a survival mechanism in the home for which they're most well known.
Ultimately, penguins have been somewhat misunderstood, but this misunderstanding speaks to a broader miscalculation that commonly occurs. Many times when fossils are discovered for the first time, the implications they present affect timelines that researchers have already used as predication for all manner of other suppositions. Certain animals and their migrations at certain points in history, obviously including those of human beings, have served as reference points and milestones used by researchers to establish timelines, track the evolution of the human genome, map the course back to the last universal common ancestor (known as LUCA) and demarcate eras, periods, epochs and ages respectively.