They found the remains of a giant "human penguin" in New Zealand

The fossilized remains of a penguin from one similar size to that of a human They were found on the island of southern New Zealand, scientists said Wednesday.

This giant marine bird named "Crossvallia waiparensis", measured 1.60 m and weighed 80 kgthat's 40 centimeters more and four times the weight of the current emperor penguin, they said. I lived in the Paleocene, between 66 and 56 million years ago.

An amateur fossil hunter discovered last year the a leg bone of this giant penguin. The specialized magazine Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Paleontology confirmed in an article published this week the existence of a new species.

This is the second giant fossil of the Paleocene penguin found in the same area, said Vanesa de Pietri, a researcher at the Canterbury Museum. "This reinforces our theory that the penguins were great at the beginning of their evolution"he said.

New Zealand is known today for its gigantic extinct birds, such as moa (Dinornis), which extinguished in the late eighteenth century, the largest bird (unable to fly) ever existed (3.60 meters high by 200 pounds in weight), or the Haast Eagle, about three meters wide.

The Canterbury Museum announced last week the discovery in New Zealand of remains of one giant parrot what measured close to a meter high, weighed up to 7 kilos and lived 19 million years ago.