A 2019 study published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica has even revealed that the world’s oldest penguin once swam in these waters, just after dinosaurs were wiped away from Earth.

That part of the leg, the scientists said, allows birds to twist and turn like dinosaurs did tens of millions of years ago. The “fibular reduction” has helped penguins to waddle and turkeys to ...

The earliest-known penguin – dating back to 61 million years ago, about 5 million years after the mass extinction event that doomed the dinosaurs – is called Waimanu manneringi, from New Zealand.