Marplesornis facts for kids

Marplesornis novaezealandiae, also called Harris's penguin, was a type of penguin that lived long ago. It is now extinct, meaning it no longer exists. This ancient penguin lived in New Zealand. It was quite a large bird, similar in size to today's king penguin.

Scientists are still trying to figure out its exact age. They know it lived sometime between the Early Miocene and Late Pliocene periods. This means it could be anywhere from about 23 million to 2.5 million years old!

Discovering Harris's Penguin

Finding the First Fossil

The first and only known fossil of this penguin was found in 1955. A person named G. Harris discovered it. He found a nearly complete skeleton. The discovery happened at Motunau Beach. This beach is in the Canterbury area of New Zealand's South Island.

Who Named This Ancient Bird?

A scientist named Brian Marples first studied the fossil. He described the penguin in 1960. At first, he thought it belonged to a group of penguins called Paleospheniscus. These penguins were known from Argentina.

Later, another scientist named George Gaylord Simpson looked at the fossil. In 1972, he decided it was a new, unique type of penguin. He created a new genus just for it, which he named Marplesornis. He chose this name to honor Brian Marples, who first described the fossil.

The second part of the penguin's name, novaezealandiae, means "from New Zealand" in Latin. The common name, Harris's penguin, remembers G. Harris, who found the very first fossil.