Giant penguins made their home near the equator

A RACE of giant penguins marched to equatorial South America during a time when the world was much warmer than it is now, scientists have discovered.

Researchers were surprised to find fossil remains of the 36 million-year-old extinct penguin, which stood more than 5ft tall, so far south.

Icadyptes salasi, and another smaller species found with it on the south coast of Peru, Perudyptes devriesi, challenge previous conceptions about penguin evolution and expansion.

Dr Julia Clarke, from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, US, who led the scientists, said: “We tend to think of penguins as being cold-adapted species, even the small penguins in equatorial regions today, but the new fossils date back to one of the warmest periods in the last 65 million years of Earth’s history. The evidence indicates that penguins reached low-latitude regions more than 30 million years prior to our previous estimates.”

The giant penguin would have been a formidable animal, scientists said. Its most unusual feature was a seven-inch pointed spear-like beak, and it was powerfully built with strong neck muscles.

Dr Clarke warned that it would be a mistake to assume that present-day penguins facing climate change would be equally adaptive.