A Magellanic penguin photographed in Peru in 2007. A 36-million-year-old fossil of a penguin, also from Peru, shows the bird had feathers that were reddish brown and grey.
Credit: AFP
WASHINGTON: A 36-million-year-old fossil of a penguin from Peru shows the bird had feathers that were reddish brown and grey, unlike the black-and-white tuxedo appearance of today's penguins, researchers reported.
The new species called Inkayacu paracasensis or water king, was nearly 1.5 metres tall or about twice the size of an Emperor penguin, the largest living penguin today, the scientists reported
"Before this fossil, we had no evidence about the feathers, colours and flipper shapes of ancient penguins. We had questions and this was our first chance to start answering them," said lead author Julia Clarke, palaeontologist at The University of Texas, Austin of a report in Science.
Colouring-in a giant fossil penguin
The fossil shows the flipper and feather shapes that make penguins such powerful swimmers evolved early, but that their distinctive colour patterns took longer.
"Insights into the colour of extinct organisms can reveal clues to their ecology and behaviour," said co-author Jakob Vinther at Yale University.
"But most of all, I think it is simply just cool to get a look at the colour of a remarkable extinct organism, such as a giant fossil penguin."
To determine the colours, the researchers studied the size and shape of melanosomes, the biological cells that produce pigments. They compared melanosomes recovered from the fossil to their extensive library of those from living birds to reconstruct the colours of the fossil penguin's feathers.
