Thursday, February 5, 2009

Giant tropical penguin

I took Nick shopping last night. I guess he had run completely out of food and not told anyone. He should be well stocked now. 

Art 
goal for the week 17.25 hours
Today
still sanding
still need to work on new concepts no good ideas yesterday

Animal

Icadyptes salasi was a 5ft penguin from the late Eocene period found in Peru. It was not the largest of past giant penguins (some of the ancient penguins of Antarctica being larger) but it is known from the most complete remains. Oddly, it lived in a very warm climate on average the late Eocene was a very warm period and it lived near the equator. It had been priorly thought that penguins had evolved in around Antarctica and had moved into tropical areas only within the last few million years. This giant penguin was 30 million years too early so it seems penguins spread into more diverse climates earlier then priorly thought. It had a long spear-like beak similar to a heron's, but it is thought that feature was not particularly odd for early penguins.

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