7. The Mystery of Their Extinction
Scientists and other experts are still enthralled with the interesting and complicated subject of big penguin disappearance. Originally ruling the Antarctic oceans for millions of years, these amazing animals vanished from the fossil record about 23 million years ago. Though the causes of their disappearance are unknown, various hypotheses have been put forth that highlight the difficulties these vanished birds encountered and the evolving environment they lived in.
Climate change is among the main ideas explaining the disappearance of gigantic penguins. Significant global cooling during the period before their extinction produced the Antarctic ice sheets we know today. The ecosystem supporting huge penguins would have suffered greatly from this extreme environmental change. Both in terms of nesting places on land and feeding regions in the sea, the cooling seas and growing ice could have lessened the accessible habitat for these birds.
The distribution and number of prey species that gigantic penguins depended on probably suffered as well from climate change. Many of the fish and squid species that made up their food might have moved to warmer seas or seen their numbers drop as temperatures dropped. The enormous penguin populations would have been under great strain from this decrease in food supplies, maybe resulting in a slow drop over time.
The rise and diversification of marine mammals, especially whales and seals, most certainly had another major role in the extinction of enormous penguins. These recently emerged animal groupings started to fill comparable ecological niches to large penguins, so vying for food supplies directly. Among the various benefits marine animals offered over the penguins were the capacity to nurse live young and deliver them, so enabling more quick population expansion and recovery.
Because these new rivals were warm-blooded and could sustain high activity levels in frigid waters, the rivalry from marine mammals may have been especially fierce. With an advantage in hunting and foraging, this would have helped them to perhaps outcompete the big penguins for few resources. The burden on gigantic penguins most certainly intensified as marine animal numbers varied and expanded.
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