The Waipara Crossvallia  penguin was a giant Paleocene penguin that was described from leg bones of a single individual, plus two tentatively referred proximal humeri, recovered from 62–58 million-year-old marine deposits along the Waipara River, North Canterbury. Along with Bice's penguin (which is of similar age and size), the Waipara Crossvallia penguin demonstrates that penguins attained gigantic size (substantially larger than an emperor penguin) early in their evolutionary history. The extinction of very large penguins has been attributed to competition from later evolving marine mammals.

The holotype of the Waipara Crossvallia penguin (CM 2018.23.9) is held at Canterbury Museum, and comprises the distal end of the left femur, both tibiotarsi, the right tarsometatarsus, and a pedal phalanx.

The type species for Crossvallia (C. unienwillia) is known from a single poorly-preserved specimen from late Paleocene deposits on Seymour Island, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The genus was named after the Cross Valley Formation on Seymour Island; the species name waiparensis refers to the type locality.

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Canterbury Museum

References

Mayr, G.; De Pietri, V.L.; Love, L.; Mannering, A. & Scofield, R.P. 2019. Leg bones of a new penguin species from the Waipara Greensand add to the diversity of very large Sphenisciformes in the Paleocene of New Zealand. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 44: 194–201.

Recommended citation

Miskelly, C.M. 2022. Waipara Crossvallia penguin. In Miskelly, C.M. (ed.) New Zealand Birds Online. www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz