How Tall Is The Tallest Penguin?
The tallest penguin we’ve found is the “colossus penguin.” It lived about 37 million years ago in Antarctica. This big bird was 6 foot 8 inches tall and weighed about 250 pounds.
The colossus penguin had really big bones. It had a fused ankle-foot bone and parts of its wing. These fossils are the best we’ve seen in Antarctica.
Today, the biggest penguin is the emperor penguin. It stands at about 4 feet and weighs up to 100 pounds. The colossus penguin was much bigger. It was probably good at catching large fish deep in the ocean.
Emperor Penguins – The Tallest Living Penguins
The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the biggest and heaviest of all penguin kinds. They are from Antarctica. They can be as tall as 3.9 feet and weigh up to 99 pounds. Emperor penguins have a unique look. They wear black suits but have a white belly and yellow touches around their ears. They are made for swimming, not flying.
These penguins love seafood. They eat fish, krill, and squid. They can swim underwater for 20 minutes. Their deepest dives go down to 1,755 feet. In the cold Antarctic winter, they walk miles over ice to have babies.
The moms lay one egg each. Then, it’s dad’s turn to keep the egg warm for over 60 days. Mom goes fishing in the ocean. When the egg hatches, both parents look after the baby. Emperor penguins can live up to 20 years in the wild. Some even make it to 50.
Prehistoric Giants – The Tallest Penguins of All Time
Recently, scientists found fossils of a big penguin species named Kumimanu fordycei. They found them in rocks in New Zealand’s South Island. These findings show that this penguin was huge, weighing about 340 pounds. This is about three times heavier than today’s biggest penguin, the emperor penguin.
The exact height of Kumimanu fordycei is not certain because only parts of its skeleton were found. However, they think it was probably about 5 feet tall. This bird lived between 55.5 million and 59.5 million years ago, in a time known as the Late Palaeocene.
Before this discovery, we knew about other big penguins. The colossus penguin, for instance, lived about 37 million years ago. It stood at a towering height of 6 feet 6 inches. Then there was Nordenskjoeld’s giant penguin. This penguin, found in the Eocene epoch, stood at 5 feet 6 inches.
This finding changes what we knew about giant penguins. It tells us more about how penguins have changed over time. These giant penguins are an important part of penguin history.
