Leg bones of a new penguin species from the Waipara Greensand add to the diversity of very large-sized Sphenisciformes in the Paleocene of New Zealand

Abstract

Mayr, G., De Pietri, V.L., Love, L., Mannering, A. & Scofield, R.P., 9 August 2019. Leg bones of a new penguin species from the Waipara Greensand add to the diversity of very large-sized Sphenisciformes in the Paleocene of New Zealand. Alcheringa 44, 194–201. ISSN 0311-5518

We describe a new large-sized species of the Sphenisciformes (penguins) from Paleocene strata of the Waipara Greensand in New Zealand. ?Crossvallia waiparensis, sp. nov. is represented by leg bones of a single individual as well as two tentatively referred proximal humeri and resembles Crossvallia unienwillia from the late Paleocene of Antarctica in size and morphology. The new species is the fifth published species of stem group Sphenisciformes from the Waipara Greensand and the fourth one, which has been formally named. It is distinguished from a recently reported tarsometatarsus of an unnamed large-sized penguin species from the Waipara Greensand and is the oldest well-represented giant penguin. ?C. waiparensis approaches the size of the Eocene taxa Anthropornis and Palaeeudyptes and provides further evidence that penguins attained a very large size early in their evolutionary history.

Gerald Mayr [[email protected]], Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Ornithological Section, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Vanesa L. De Pietri [[email protected]], Al Mannering [[email protected]], R. Paul Scofield [[email protected]], Canterbury Museum, Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch 8050, New Zealand; Leigh Love [[email protected]], PO Box 49, Waipara 7483, New Zealand.

Key words:

• Aves
• birds
• evolution
• fossil birds
• morphology
• systematics
• taxonomy.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

VDP and RPS thank Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche, Martin de los Reyes and Nadia Haidr for providing access to the Crossvallia unienwillia holotype in the Museo de La Plata. Comments from two anonymous reviewers improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The study was partly supported by a grant to VDP, RPS and GM from the Marsden Fund Council from Government funding, managed by Royal Society Te Apārangi.