Birds of a Feather Swim Together
Some new fossils shed a bit of light on the history of penguins.
If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, then you’ll have noticed that I have two particular loves in the animal kingdom: birds, and fossils. This post combines them both.
There’s been a truly wonderful fossil find in Peru. The remains of not one, but two, new species of penguin have been discovered there.
You can read a good news article on the discovery here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070625/sc_livescience/giantancientpenguinslikedithot
So what makes these fossils so interesting?
Well, for starters, the larger of the two new discoveries would have stood over five feet tall, and wighed more than 110 pounds. Most penguins today are less than 30 inches tall, and rarely weigh more than 15 pounds. Even today’s “giant” penguin, the King or Emporer penguin of Antarctica, is only two thirds the size of this fossil giant. This extinct penguin is, truly, significantly larger than modern species.
Second, both species were found in Peru, not far from the equator, in 30 million year old rocks. This puts them in a time and place with a much warmer climate than today. As the article notes:
The findings call into question the established idea that penguins evolved in high latitudes and didn’t waddle close to the equator until about 10 million years ago?long after Earth cooled significantly.
Thomas Henry Huxley, the famous 19th century exponent of evolution, once said that the finest theory can be killed by a single fact. Here are two facts, suggesting that perhaps penguins started out their evolutionary run with a much greater distribution than we thought. Remember: penguins like habitats, deep water and rocky coasts, that are not good for fossil preservation.
And were are penguins today? They are a modestly successful group of seabirds, widespread through the higher latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Again, from the article:
…17 penguin species inhabit the globe, ranging in size from the two-pound, 16-inch little blue penguin to the 84-pound, 4.3-foot Emperor penguin.
And while we think of penguins strictly as cold-weather birds, two species, the Humboldt penguin of modern Peru, and the Galapagos penguin, live year round in warmer climes.
The Pet that Owns Me
I’ve been talking a lot about animals here, but so far, I’ve barely mentioned the one that’s closest to my heart: my parrot, Took.
Took is a 25 year old Yellow-Naped Amazon parrot. My parents got her when I was just a kid, and she was the first female to steal my heart.
When I moved out of my parents place a few years ago, they told me that Took was going with me. That was fine with me, and probably Took, too, since when she was about 7 or 8 years old, and I was a teenager, she’d decided that I was the only human who could handle her. Parrots, and Amazon parrots in particular, will sometimes pair off with a person like that, when they reach maturity. It can be an issue if the bird gets aggressive about it, but Took is pretty laid back.
So what kind of bird is she? Well, she’s about the size of a large crow, green, but with blue and red bars on her wings, and a yellow patch on the nape of her neck. Yellow-napes come from the Pacific Coast of Central America, from Costa Rica, north to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. They have a reputation as excellent talkers, so Took is probably normal there: she sings the theme song to Sesame Street, and says, “I love you,” and, “Wanna come out?” They are not usually cuddly birds, but Took is, at least with me. She’ll perch on my shoulder, tuck her head under my chin, and say, “Snuggle,” when she wants affection. She does get jealous though; she has to stay in the cage when my wife comes around.
I hope, when I have kids, that Took likes them. Amazon’s can live a long time, and if Took outlives me, which she might, she’ll need a home. Still, I think that 50 years is plenty of time to figure that out. Right now, though, she’s singing. I think I’ll give her some almonds.
