Uncovering Africa's oldest known penguins
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 10:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Africa isn't the kind of place you might expect to find penguins. But one species lives in Africa today, and new fossils confirm that as many as four penguin species coexisted on the continent in the past. Exactly why African penguin diversity plummeted is still a mystery, but changing sea levels may be to blame. The fossils represent the oldest evidence of penguins in Africa, predating previously described fossils by 5 to 7 million years.