Proto-penguins lived with dinosaurs

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org

In case these news stories have not been mentioned yet:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3628684a7693,00.html

Penguin fossils world's oldest 
06 April 2006  
By MATTHEW TORBIT

Four fossilised penguins discovered in a Canterbury 
riverbed have been confirmed as the world's oldest remains 
of the species. 


Scientists believe they could be the missing link that 
proves modern birds lived alongside dinosaurs. 

Dna tests on the Waimanu penguin fossils, found near the 
Waipara River, have determined they are between 60 million 
and 62 million years old - or up to 10 million years older 
than any other penguin remains discovered. 

They lived in the shallow seas off eastern New Zealand 
just after dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years 
ago. 

An Otago University geologist, Associate Professor Ewan 
Fordyce, said modern theory was that most modern bird 
groups evolved after the dinosaurs died out. 

"By using the dates from the fossil Waimanu penguins as a 
calibration point, we can then predict how far back in 
time the other groups of living birds originated. If early 
penguins lived in southern seas not long after the 
extinction of dinosaurs, then other bird groups more 
distantly related to penguins must have been established 
even earlier." 

The findings - to be published in the international 
journal Molecular Biology - suggest many groups of living 
birds originated well back in the Cretaceous period, 
between 65 million and 144 million years ago, when 
dinosaurs were thriving. 

Professor Fordyce expects the fossils to receive huge 
overseas attention. "These proto-penguins were about the 
size of yellow-eyed penguins and probably looked a bit 
like shags. 

"It's very unlikely that they could fly, but their wing 
bones were compressed and dense, which would allow their 
wings to be used to swim underwater." 

The fossils were found in the mid-1980s but have only 
recently been properly examined and dated. 

Professor Fordyce said New Zealand's marine fossil record 
was one of the most abundant in the southern hemisphere. 

A two-kilometre-long deposit of fossilised theropod 
dinosaur bones was discovered on the Chatham Islands last 
week, while in February, a giant "human-sized" 40-million-
year-old fossilised penguin was discovered in Kawhia, in 
the Waikato. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1611576.htm
 
Penguins survived when dinosaurs died. 07/04/2006. ABC 
News Online 

By Marilyn Head for ABC Science Online

New analysis of the world's oldest fossil penguins 
confirms some birds survived the mass extinction that 
killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, researchers say.

The penguins once lived in shallow seas off New Zealand's 
east coast 60 million years ago.

Now a molecular study, published in the journal Molecular 
Biology and Evolution, links them closely to modern 
penguins.

Co-author Associate Professor Ewan Fordyce from the 
University of Otago says penguins are specialised birds 
that evolved much later than other species.

"The fact that they have been found within a few million 
years of the dinosaurs' extinction is compelling evidence 
that modern birds must have evolved earlier and 
diversified during the time of the dinosaurs," he said.

"It also suggests that many of those bird lineages 
survived the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs, so 
it's unlikely that there was a big turnover, with modern 
birds only emerging after the mass extinction."

The study incorporates genetic evidence of the 
evolutionary relationships between penguins' distant 
cousins like shearwaters, albatrosses, ducks and moas.

The researchers used DNA from these birds to provide a 
broad framework of family relationships which, together 
with the fossil evidence, is used to predict when those 
birds must have arisen.

"We're really confident we have ancient birds and really 
confident about the date," says Professor Fordyce.

"It's enabled us to establish an earlier timeframe for 
when groups of modern birds branched out."

Most of the New Zealand fossils, officially recognised as 
the Waimanu penguin genus, were discovered by amateur 
palaeontologist Al Mannering in the Waipara region just 
north of Christchurch.

Some 60 million years ago New Zealand had already 
separated from Australia and Antarctica and was a low-
lying land mass much closer to the South Pole.

Waimanu manneringi would have developed in a polar habitat 
similar to today's yellow-eyed penguin, which it closely 
resembles.

Its long bill and condensed wing bones indicate that it 
would be quite at home eating and swimming in today's 
Antarctica, the researchers say. 



© 2006 Australian Broadcasting Corporation