A recent study has revealed that the average weight of penguins today is nothing compared to what their ancestors were once like. The Kumimanu Fordyce, a now-extinct species of penguins that lived in New Zealand around 57 million years ago, was once three times the size of the Emperor Penguin, the largest member of the species today. The Kumimanu Fordyce weighed a whopping 154 to 159 kg, compared to the Emperor Penguin’s 22 to 45 kg. The discovery was made by an international team of researchers who published their findings in the Journal of Paleontology.
The Kumimanu Fordyce and other species of penguin were discovered in North Otago, on New Zealand’s South Island, in fossils dating back 57 million years. The researchers have estimated the size of the Kumimanu Fordyce by using the incomplete fossil that they discovered. The researchers are yet to discover the bones of the bird’s legs, but they estimate that it would’ve been roughly around five feet and four inches (5’4″). The primitive features of the Kumimanu Fordyce and Petradyptes Stonehouse, another penguin species, were such that they resembled those of flying birds