Ancient penguin was as big as a grown man

WASHINGTON - Scientists have unearthed in New Zealand fossil bones of what might be the heavyweight champion of the penguin world, a bird nearly 1.8 meters that thrived 55 to 60 million years ago, relatively soon after the demise of the dinosaurs.

Researchers said on Tuesday the ancient penguin, called Kumimanu biceae, weighed 101 kilograms, and was much bigger than the largest of these flightless seabirds alive today, the emperor penguin, which grows to 1.2 meters and about 40 kg.

The only ancient penguin yet discovered that might have been larger than Kumimanu is known only from a leg bone, said ornithologist Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt.