Giant Penguins Once Roamed Peru

Douglas Roberts points out as "obvious Linux fodder" the coverage of a study just published in PNAS claiming that, on fossil evidence, giant penguins once stalked the plains of Peru. One species goes back over 40 million years and its members were as large as modern king penguins. They were warm adapted. Members of another species, 30 million years ago, stood 5 feet high and made their living spearfishing with their 1-foot beaks. Here's an artist's impression.

Comments

I for one blah blah

[Mikachu]

I, welcome, overlords, etc.

Now that that's out of the way, we can actually have a serious discussion about this

(just kidding)

Re:I for one blah blah

[ozmanjusri]

Now that that's out of the way, we can actually have a serious discussion about this

Is it ok if we imagine a Beowulf cluster of them first?

Re:I for one blah blah

[laejoh]

In Soviet Russia a Beowulf cluster of Giant Penguins roam you?

Stalked ?

[kgp_crap]

Stalked the plains of Peru ?? WTF ? Penguins ? Hunting what ? Wilder beasts ? At least the article says that they just 'roamed' the deserts .

Re:Stalked ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hunting what ?

Tiny polar bears. Those penguins could eat several per day.

Re:Stalked ?

[jollyreaper]

Stalked the plains of Peru ?? WTF ? Penguins ? Look, all I'm saying is anything big enough to hunt geographic features, I don't wanna fuck with it, ok?

Crap

[xhydra]

"made their living spearfishing"
Oh is that so???

And in other more recent news fossil evidence found England has indicated that 60 million years ago
apples grew to a astounnding circumference of 2 metres...... Fodder for Mac-Fanboys

obligatory Monty Python

[mgabrys_sf]

First Old Woman: Well, what's on the television then.

Second Old Woman: Looks like a giant 5 foot tall prehistoric penguin.

First Old Woman: No No No not what's on the television set - I mean what programme?

Global Warming.

[Karganeth]

I have no doubt that these penguins no longer roam there thanks to man made Global Warming. We must immediately lower our CO2 emissions and cripple our economic growth.

Pingo Sapiens?

[edittard]

An upright posture frees the forelimbs from walking duties. Imagine if these had evolved to be tool users then tool makers. They might have developed computers, and an OS with a mostly hairless ape for a mascot.

Re:Artists impression

[iHasaFlavour]

not neccesarily. They fished so the exact same colour scheme would have been effective for exactly the same reasons. Penguins are not black and white to protect themselves from land predators, but from sea based ones. Nor are they white underneath because of there being ice above them, since benguins that rarely go near iced up seas are also white on their bellies.

Aside from that, their primary defense in water is the ability to swim jolly fast, not hide. On land they wouldn't be able to get up to anything more then a frantic waddle. No matter what colour you are that's not going to be helpful. Escape to water is about the only thing that'd work.

Re:about Penguins

[Bill Dog]

I'm the other leading expert. All penguins do is waddle and shit.

This proves it...

[phagstrom]

Linux predates Microsoft's patents.

I guess there is no way we're going to have a serious discussion on this subject.

Re:Artists impression

[loic_2003]

"Because they were depicted as penguins the artist decided for black-and-white. However common these are as animal colors around the polar circle. If these creatures were adapted to living in a hotter environment, most likely they would have followed a color scheme that would better hide them from predators."

This is true; one only has to look at the herds of zebras floating on icebergs in the artic to confirm this is the case...