Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
567 / Cenozoic
Kairuku
Kairuku grebneffi
A slender trunk, long bill and large flippers produced a taller silhouette than modern penguins.
View original image · 1600 × 1067- Time range
- About 27–25 million years ago
- Final stage
- Late Oligocene
- Geographic range
- Shallow shelf and rocky coast · New Zealand
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Kairuku?
Kairuku (Kairuku grebneffi) was an extinct organism known from About 27–25 million years ago, with a range in Shallow shelf and rocky coast · New Zealand.
Life and ecology
It entered shallow seas from rocky coasts and made long dives after fish and cephalopods.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Kairuku disappear?
Its record, about 27–25 million years old, is Oligocene; later Miocene cooling cannot explain its disappearance, whose cause is not established.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Kairuku?
Near-complete skeletons preserve bill, spine and flippers; body estimates use articulated bones and modern comparisons.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS