Scientists from Massey University in New Zealand announced that the fossils found by schoolchildren in 2006 during their coastal tour, belong to an unknown species of giant penguins.

The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology notes that this species lived in New Zealand in the Oligocene period. After studying these fossils, it became clear that this species was distinguished by an unusual length of its legs, reaching a length of 1.4 meters.

Experts named this new species Kairuku waewaeroa, because it resembles a penguin found in 2012 in the Otago region of the South Island, but has longer legs. Waewaeroa means “long legs” in Maori.

“This penguin is similar to the giant Kairuku penguin, but its legs are longer, which made it much longer. This may have helped it swim faster and dive deeper,” said lead researcher Dr. Daniel Thomas from the university.

After university scientists and experts at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut, USA, were able, through 3D scans, to obtain a digital image of this species and compare it to digital images of all known species of penguins in the world, they declared with full confidence that this is a new species of penguin. And that its age ranged from 27.3 to 34.6 million years, and during this period the area in which the fossils were found was submerged in water.