14 DAY TRIAL // Millions of years ago, New Zealand was inhabited by giant penguins, which rivaled humans in average height. According to a new study, Kairuku penguins were about 4 feet 6 inches (1.4 meters) tall. Fancy meeting one of these creatures at the beach one day!
The prehistoric penguin, whose name means “diver who returns with food,” lived about 25 million years ago. Scientists established these data from fossilized remains unburied by University of Otago paleontologist Dr. Ewan Fordyce, in 1977.
“Kairuku was an elegant bird by penguin standards, with a slender body and long flippers, but short, thick legs and feet,” North Carolina State University expert Dan Ksepka said in a recent press release.
Out of the five species of penguins that lived in New Zealand during the Oligocene period, this was the largest. The creature thrived here because the island was a lot lower at the time, and most of it was still flooded, leaving behind numerous rocky cliffs for the birds to use, Wired reports.