Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi

Encyclopedia : A : AN : ANT : Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi

Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin, Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, was a penguin species that lived 45-37 million years ago, during the Late Eocene and the earliest part of the Oligocene. It reached 1.7 metres in height and 90 kilograms in weight. Fossils of it have been found on Seymour Island off the coast of Australia and New Zealand. By comparison, the largest modern penguin species, the Emperor Penguin, is just 1.2 m tall.

Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi had a bent joint in the wing; this indicates a carryover from its flying ancestors. Penguins were descended from grebe or loon-like ancestors, and became flightless as they became full-time swimmers.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.