''Waimanu'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of early

penguin Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adap ...

which lived during the

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''pala ...

, soon after the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago. With the ...

, around 62–60 million years ago. It was about the size of an

emperor penguin The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing from . Feathers of t ...

(1 metre). It is one of the most important bird fossils for understanding the origin and evolution of birds because of the time period it comes from, and the position of penguins near the base of the bird family tree. ''Waimanu'' was a very early member of the

Sphenisciformes Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

, the order that includes modern penguins. However, although it was probably flightless like all modern penguins, with wings specialized for wing-propelled diving, its wing bones do not yet show the extreme specializations modern penguins have for an aquatic lifestyle. It may have resembled a flightless

loon Loons ( North American English) or divers ( British / Irish English) are a group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus ''Gavia'', family Gaviidae and order ...

or diver in body shape, and possibly the

great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, wh ...

in its manner of locomotion.

Discovery

''Waimanu'' was discovered in the Basal

Waipara Greensand The Waipara Greensand is a geological rock unit found in Canterbury, New Zealand. It dates from just after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the Thanetian and Selandian, around 61–62 million years ago in the early Palaeocene. It is ...

near the Waipara River, in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

, in 1980. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

is a partial skeleton comprising almost complete right tibiotarsus, proximal half of right fibula, right tarsometatarsus, right pelvis, and synsacrum (with last thoracic vertebra attached to the synsacrum), four caudal vertebrae. It is held in the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Etymology

The genus name ''Waimanu'' comes from the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

''wai'' for "water" and ''manu'' for "bird". One species is known, ''W. manneringi'', named for Al Mannering who found and collected the

specimen A second species, ''Waimanu tuatahi'', was moved to ''

Muriwaimanu ''Muriwaimanu'' is an extinct genus of early penguin. One species is known, ''Muriwaimanu tuatahi'', which was originally referred to '' Waimanu tuatahi'' in 2006 by Slack ''et al.''.Slack, K.E., Jones, C.M., Ando, T., Harrison G.L., Fordyce R.E ...

'' in 2018.

Significance

The discovery of ''Waimanu'' provided evidence for the debate about whether the radiation of modern birds,

Neoaves Neoaves is a clade that consists of all modern birds (Neornithes or Aves) with the exception of Paleognathae (ratites and kin) and Galloanserae (ducks, chickens and kin). Almost 95% of the roughly 10,000 known species of extant birds belong to ...

, took place before the extinction of the non-avian

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is the ...

or extremely rapidly immediately after. DNA studies, combined with the fossil evidence, seem to indicate the latter.

References

External links

Images of ''Waimanu'' specimens and a phylogram of early birds.

Skull of world's oldest penguin found
{{Taxonbar, from=Q138638 Prehistoric bird genera Sphenisciformes Paleocene birds Extinct penguins Extinct birds of New Zealand Fossil taxa described in 2006