Are the lovable penguins of so many recent movies about to go extinct, like so many other creatures? It turns out that 30 million years ago, penguins lived in a much warmer climate than they do now, so does this mean they may survive global warming?
These were not today’s penguins?these were two different species that lived in Peru that have been identified by fossil remains. One of these species was 5 feet tall with a beak that was 7 inches long!
There are 17 different species of penguin are alive today, all living in Antarctica, where it’s extremely cold year round. In LiveScience.com, Jeanna Bryner quotes paleontologist Julia Clarke as saying, “We tend to think of penguins as being cold-adapted species, but the new fossils date back to one of the warmest periods in the last 65 million years of Earth?s history?In addition, current global warming is occurring on a significantly shorter timescale. [However], the data from these new fossil species cannot be used to argue that warming wouldn?t negatively impact living penguins.”
Art credit: gimp-savvy.com
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