Penguin of the past identified with 3D scanning

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The penguin would have looked a little like these bad boys, but around 30cm taller

Right now you might be in love with the playful John Lewis type, or enraptured by the special forces variety, but we’ve got some more penguin news for you.

A giant extinct variety has finally been identified by 3D scanning and 3D printing the remnants of fossils found in the 1970s in New Zealand, allowing palaeontologists to deduce that this lil’ fella was around 1.3m in height.

Working with only one 27 million-year-old leg bone and a few other fragments, Massey University’s Dr Daniel Thomas sent the 3D scan data to American paleontologist Dr Daniel Ksepka, who could 3D print and investigate a physical ‘bone’.
Speaking to Radio New Zealand, Dr Thomas said: “Africa has fossil humans, America has fossil dinosaurs, we have a few dinosaurs, but I like to think of New Zealand as a place with giant penguins. It feeds into the idea that New Zealand is really special.”

It sure is boys, it sure is…

//www.youtube.com/embed/KHGHEpUeUwo

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