Fossils found in New Zealand show that an ancient penguin was giant in size - reaching 1.77 meters in height and weighing 100 kg, the Associated Press and the France press reported.

Scientists have announced that they have found the largest penguin ever living on our planet. "It is incredible that these ancestors of today's penguins have been so large," said one of the study's lead, paleontologist Gerald Mayr of the Zennenberg Institute in Germany.

German and New Zealand scientists concluded that the animal in question, whose fossils were found on the South Island, lived 55-60 million years ago, through the Paleocene.

"The dimensions of the bones, in particular the 16 inches of femur, reveal that the species had a height of over 1.70 meters and a body weight of over 100 kg, ie 50 cm and 60 kg larger than the height and weight of the largest specimens among today's imperial penguins, "said Mayr," we quickly realized that we were studying an unknown species so far. " The results obtained suggest that gigantism was common among the grandparents of today's penguins.

The results of the study are published in Nature Communications.