Re: Proto-penguins lived with dinosaurs

[Jay <sappororaptor@yahoo.com>]

Let me get this staright: They DNA tested the penguin fossils???
..and this determined that were 60-62 million years old.

Is it just me or am i missing something here?

--- bh480@scn.org wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 


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