3. Fossils of a 340-Pound Giant Penguin Found in New Zealand

Fossils of a 340-Pound Giant Penguin Found in New Zealand

Compared to some mammals, penguins reached their maximum body size very early in their evolutionary history—possibly not long after they lost their ability to fly some 60 million years ago, per Live Science

How does a creature lose an ability that seems pretty important to their survival? If I’m reading correctly, penguin ancestors could fly, then stopped flying for some reason and then grew in size. Evolution takes a long time, so this was not a change that occurred over night.

Was in an abundance of food resources in the immediate area and they no longer needed to travel by flight? Lack of predators and they no longer needed flight as an escape mechanism?

/r/EverythingScience Thread Link - smithsonianmag.com
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