Image: Mark WittonMonster penguins that lived in the South Island 62 million years ago had doppelgangers in Japan, the United States and Canada, a study co-authored by two Canterbury Museum curators and published today has found. Scientists have identified striking similarities between the penguins’ fossilised bones found in at Waipara, North Canterbury, and those of a group of much younger Northern Hemisphere birds, the plotopterids. These similarities suggest plotopterids and ancient penguins looked very similar and might help scientists understand how birds started using their wings to swim instead of fly. “What’s remarkable about all this is that plotopterids and ancient penguins evolved these shared features independently,” says De Pietri. “Plotopterids looked like penguins, they swam like penguins, they probably ate like penguins – but they weren’t penguins.”Mayr says the parallels in the evolution of the bird groups hint at an explanation for why birds developed the ability to swim with their wings.

Source: Otago Daily Times June 29, 2020 18:00 UTC