Penguins originated in Australia and New Zealand 22 million years ago: Study

A recent study has shown that Penguins, the flightless-featherless birds we all adore, did not evolve in Antarctica but in Australia and New Zealand. According to reports, the study was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley in partnership with museums and universities around the world.

Read: Antarctica's Melting Sea Ice Is Making Adélie Penguins 'happier': Study

Evolved Millions of years ago

According to reports, the study analysed the blood and tissue samples from 18 different species of Penguins found that the penguin crown-group originated during the Miocene geological period in New Zealand and Australia. The new findings debunk the previously held belief that penguins had first evolved in Antarctica.

According to the study which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal on August 17, penguins first evolved in temperate environments and then moved to the colder waters of the Antarctic. 

The research suggests that penguins originated in New Zealand and Australia 22 million years go and sometime after that the king and emperor penguin groups split off and made their way to the frigid Antarctic waters, most probably attracted by the abundance of prey.

According to reports, 12 million years ago the ‘Drake passage’ (a body of water between Antarctica and the southern tip of South America) opened up and allowed penguins to fully explore the Southern Ocean. The flightless birds can today be found in Australia and New Zealand and in Antarctica, South America, Atlantic, southern Africa, the sub-Antarctic, Indian Ocean islands, and subtropical regions.

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Ancient Monster Penguins

Earlier, a study found that huge ‘monster penguins’ lived in New Zealand 62 million years ago and strangely had doppelgangers in the US. The scientific term for the doppelganger is plotopterids.

Paul Scofield, a Canterbury Museum curator in New Zealand, revealed more details about the same to a media portal. He said that plotopterids evolved in different hemispheres, millions of years apart. However, they must have looked so similar that from a distance it would have been very tough to tell them apart.

Read: Ancient Monster Penguins In New Zealand, As Tall As Humans, Had Doppelgangers In US?

Read: Penguins Running Cross Museum Floor Storm The Internet, Netizens Love The 'pitter-patter'