Tras participar en la I Feria de Naturaleza y de Observación de Aves realizada en la ciudad de Tarapoto, en San Martín el viceministro de Turismo, Eduardo Arrarte, sostuvo que el Perú apunta a convertirse en el primer destino turístico de observación aves, al contar con más de mil 800 especies. “En el mundo existen alrededor de nueve mil especies de aves y el Perú, con más de mil 800, podría ser el primer destino turístico en esta materia”, afirmó. Agregó que el número de especies registrado en Perú representa el 18.5% de la totalidad de aves en el planeta y el 45 % de las neotropicales.

Fuente Original: T News

La universidad estadounidense de Yale reconoció que las 4,000 piezas arqueológicas de Machu Picchu que están en su poder son propiedad del Perú, pero precisó que no todos los objetos volverán a nuestro país. Al respecto, el ministro de Vivienda, Hernán Garrido Lecca, dijo que todas las piezas volverían al país tras una gira por el mundo. Además, el Perú se ha comprometido a construir un nuevo museo y centro de investigaciones en Cusco. Una vez que esté terminado, a finales del 2009, “los objetos que tienen cualidad de museo volverán al Perú, así como una parte de la colección de investigación”, afirmó la Universidad.

Fuente Original: T News

Lima(EFE). Un equipo de arqueólogos peruanos, encabezado por el descubridor del Señor de Sipán, confirmó hoy el hallazgo de la tumba de una autoridad mochica aún más antigua que la del llamado Tutankamón de América, al encontrar en ella joyas y enseres de gran valor.

El cineasta español José Manuel Novoa, cuya productora, Explora Films, financia en parte las excavaciones, informó a Efe del hallazgo al constatar que pertenece a un miembro de la élite moche debido a las dimensiones del enterramiento y a las coronas halladas en su interior.

El sarcófago “mide un metro por dos metros y medio y es de madera”, manifestó en conversación telefónica desde la Huaca Rajada, el complejo arqueológico donde en 1987 Walter Alva descubrió al Señor de Sipán, en la norteña región peruana de Chiclayo y considerado uno de los principales hallazgos del siglo XX.

Aunque los arqueólogos todavía no han llegado a la momia, lo que se prevé ocurra en los próximos días, por ahora han verificado la existencia de dos coronas de bronce bañadas en oro en forma de “V”, lo que -de acuerdo a la iconografía de la cultura moche- indicaría que se trata de un sumo sacerdote.

También se han hallado cuatro cabezas felinas también de cobre y oro, similares a las que acompañaban una tumba vecina a la de Sipán y que fue saqueada a finales de los años ochenta del siglo pasado, motivo por el que estas piezas se perdieron en el mercado negro.

A ello se suma “un tocado y tres porras de combate”, así como “otras cuatro coronas retorcidas adrede” ubicadas en los pies del sarcófago, lo que -según el cineasta- podría significar que los enterradores consideraron que estos enseres “no le harían falta en la otra vida”.

Según Novoa, un apasionado de la antropología y la arqueología y que ha rodado más de un centenar de películas sobre esta temática, esta autoridad moche habría vivido hace unos 1.800 años.

“Esto denota que la tumba es previa al Señor de Sipán”, quien se cree fue enterrado hace aproximadamente 1.700 años, matizó.

El descubrimiento se encuadra en las excavaciones que lleva a cabo un equipo de 60 arqueólogos liderados por Walter Alva simultáneas al rodaje del largometraje “El Señor de Sipán”, una súper producción que Novoa planea llevar a la pantalla grande el próximo año.

El filme, cuyo rodaje comenzó en abril pasado, recrea los últimos días de vida del Señor de Sipán y al tiempo registra los trabajos de excavación en vivo, un ambicioso proyecto financiado por Explora Films, el Gobierno del Perú y un fondo oficial italiano.

El rodaje y las tareas arqueológicas, cuyo presupuesto asciende a un millón de euros, son posibles también gracias a la aportación financiera de la productora española “El Deseo”, de Pedro y Agustín Almodóvar, y de Televisión Española (TVE).

 Fuente Original: Diario El Comercio

SE REINICIARON VISITAS A LAS ISLAS BALLESTAS

A varios días del terremoto que azotó el sur chico del país, la población dejó atrás las malas experiencias y muchos se han sumado al proceso de reconstrucción y normalización de las actividades. El turismo, como una de las industrias más prometedoras de la zona, promete resurgir y a ello apuntan los empresarios y trabajadores de agencias de viajes, hoteles, embarcaciones y transportistas turísticos, restaurantes, artesanos, entre otros. Según estimados, aproximadamente el 80% de la población de Paracas depende directa o indirectamente de esta actividad.

La población quiere ver llegar nuevamente a los grupos de turistas nacionales y extranjeros, a fin de superar las consecuencias de un sismo y posterior maretazo que no afectó, como muchos piensan, la infraestructura turística y hotelera de la zona.

VIA HACIA PARACAS ESTA COMPLETAMENTE HABILITADA
La vía que recorre los 250 Km. entre Lima y Paracas está completamente habilitada y, salvo un ligero desvío pasando el puente San Clemente, el viaje cumple las casi 4 horas reglamentarias. En ese sentido, es preciso remarcar que para llegar a Paracas es posible ingresar por una vía ubicada a pocos metros del cruce que conduce a Pisco desde la Panamericana Sur, evitando así que los turistas y visitantes aprecien las casas y vías derruidas por el sismo en esta ciudad. Así lo manifestó Luis Herrera, vicepresidente de ADAVIT – Ica y gerente general del hotel Zarcillo Paradise, quien indicó que la empresa de transportes Cruz del Sur viene utilizando desde la semana pasada este camino, durante su recorrido hacia Ica y Nasca.

El pequeño desvío a pocos metros del puente San Clemente no detiene el flujo vehicular hacia Paracas e Ica. (Foto: T News)

Una de las vías que conduce a Paracas (marcada con un círculo azul) evita que los vehículos transiten por la ciudad de Pisco. (Fuente: PromPerú)

MAS DE 300 HABITACIONES EN PARACAS ESTAN APTAS PARA RECIBIR A TURISTAS
A pesar de haber sufrido los embates de tres maretazos, el 70% de la infraestructura hotelera en Paracas se encuentra en buenas condiciones y con todos los servicios operativos. Según informó Madeleine de Delanoe, gerente de World Perú Operator Tourism, existen más de 300 habitaciones listas para recibir a los turistas, y entre los hoteles y hospedajes que ya están operando figuran el Cóndor Beach, Zarcillo Paradise, El Mar Azul, El Mirador, Refugio del Pirata, El Amigo, entre otros. Cabe indicar, que actualmente muchos de estos establecimientos tienen habitaciones ocupadas por personal de las empresas que operan en la zona y de las instituciones y organizaciones de ayuda humanitaria que llegaron tras el terremoto.

Vista del hotel Cóndor Beach que no ha sufrido ningún daño a raíz del terremoto. (Foto: T News)

Otros hoteles como el Zarcillo Paradise ya se encuentran operativos y listos para recibir a los visitantes. (Foto: T News)

Algunos hoteles tienen como huéspedes a miembros de las misiones de ayuda humanitaria, en vista de que no hay alojamiento en Pisco. (Foto: T News)

The general coordination of Infosalud, Ericka Rodríguez Valdez, informed to elcomercio.com.pe that the Department of Health activated the telephone free line 0-800-10828 and a list of injured persons who have been moved to Lima so that the persons could know the state of his relatives lost after the earthquake of 7,9 grades on the Richter scale, which flogged on Wednesday night, principally, the localities of Pisco and Chincha, in Ica.

If the interested person in obtaining this information can call (If is located outside of Peru) (511) 315-6600, extension 2788, added Rodríguez, on having told that Infosalud is centralizing the lists of injured persons who send constantly the diverse hospitals of the national network, especially those of the department of Ica, with the help of the Office of National Defense of the Department of Health.

In the Toll Free, (attending 24 hours), also orientation is offered in integral health, donation of blood, food, pledges and other products that the harmed ones by the earthquake need. Also, a group of psychologists offers emotional support across this telephone number to the relatives of the deceased and affected with the earthquake.

International appeal:

• The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched an international appeal for donations. (The actual appeal here; it’s a PDF). You can donate online and select to direct funds to this disaster in particular.

In the U.S.:

• call 202-462-1081 or 202-462-1084 or 202-462-1085.
• The Red Cross is accepting donations: 1-800-RED-CROSS, or for Spanish, 800-257-7575.
• Also, all donations at St. Matthew’s in Washington DC this weekend will be going to victims.
• There’s also a Wells Fargo account you can donate to at any Wells fargo bank, but it’s unclear to me whether this is a Utah initiative or national. There seem to be multiple Utah initiatives.
• And in Arizona, there’s this.
• ReliefWeb has a situation report and a press release about sending aid.

In Peru: you can deposit money into the following bank accounts:

• Banco de Crédito: 193-19999998-0-15 (in Soles) and 193-19999999-1-16 (dollars or other foreign currency).
• The Peruvian Congress also established this one: Banco de Crédito Nº 193-1622366-0-34 (soles).
• BBVA Banco Continental: 0011-0444-4444444444 (soles), 0011-0444-4444444446 (dollars), 0011-0444-4444444447 (euros).
• Scotiabank: 0005074657 (soles), 0003022500 (dollars).
• Interbank: 200-0000001119 (soles), 200-0000001118 (dollars).
• There are, of course, a huge amount of things being done within Peru (blood drives, food drives, clothing drives, etc), but I figure, if you’re local enough to participate in those, you probably know about them already. Stuff’s being gathered at the National Stadium in Lima.

In Spain:

• Bank deposits taken at La Caixa (Barcelona): 2100-0479-21-0200048852. For info, you can email centroperuanobcn@gmail.com or call 93 265 07 20, 678 66 89 34 or 608 59 3656

In Mexico:

• BBVA Banco Continental opened the account APOYAME-3(042769263-3) / Fundación BBVA Bancomer a.c.

In Colombia:

• BBVA Banco Continental opened this account: Cuenta de ahorros No. 073 213 969 / BBVA Colombia.

In Canada:

• You can deposit into the Peruvian General Consulate’s account in Toronto, Sismo Perú 2007 Account, # 06702 113 - 4329, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Edit: received this from a person at the RBC: Raph - your reference to Peru Earthquake donations in Canada is inaccurate! Donations can ONLY currently be made at 1 branch in Toronto only - the Yonge and Bloor branch of RBC. It is NOT possible to donate at RBC branches across Canada. However, Canadians can donate to Red Cross or World Vision for earthquake relief.

For info on victims:

• Within Peru there is a toll free line: 0-800-10828
• For outside the country, use (511) 315-6600, ext. 2788
• The Red Cross says, “Inquiries concerning U.S. citizens living or traveling in Peru are referred to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services, at 1-888-407-4747 or 202 647-5225.”
• In Spain, the city of Madrid has activated a free telephone line to call Peru, details here.

La coordinadora general de Infosalud, Ericka Rodríguez Valdez, informó a elcomercio.com.pe que el Ministerio de Salud activó la línea telefónica gratuita 0-800-10828 y una lista de heridos que han sido trasladados a Lima para que las personas puedan conocer el estado de sus familiares perdidos tras el terremoto  de 7,9 grados en la escala de Richter, que azotó la noche del miércoles, principalmente, las localidades de Pisco y Chincha, en Ica.

Si la persona interesada en obtener esta información se encuenta en el exterior, puede llamar al (511) 315-6600, anexo 2788, precisó Rodríguez, al explicar que Infosalud está centralizando las listas de heridos que les remiten constantemente los diversos hospitales de la red nacional, en especial los del departamento de Ica, con la ayuda de la Oficina de Defensa Nacional del Ministerio de Salud.

Mediante la línea gratuita, que atiende las 24 horas del día, también se brinda orientación en salud integral, donación de sangre, alimentos, prendas y otros productos que necesitan los damnificados por el terremoto. Además, un grupo de psicólogos ofrece soporte emocional a través de ese número telefónico a los familiares de los fallecidos y afectados con el sismo.

DONACIONES

Para donar sangre acuda a:

- Ministerio de Salud: Avenida Salaverry cuadra 8

- También puede hacerlo en los bancos de sangre de todos los hospitales del Ministerio de Salud (Dos de mayo, Loayza, etc.), Seguro Social de Salud - Essalud (Rebagliati, Almenara, Sabogal, etc.), Fuerzas Armadas, Policía Nacional y Hospital de la Solidaridad.

Para donar víveres y ropa:

- Explanada norte del Estadio Nacional, en Santa Beatriz

- Grupo Aéreo Nº 8 de Lima, en el Callao

- Las parroquias del Perú recibirán, junto a Caritas del Perú, ropa, enseres y alimentos en todas sus sedes

- Municipalidad de San Borja: Avenida Joaquín Madrid, cuadra 2

- Circuito del Pentagonito: Avenida San Borja Norte con Boulevard

- Centro Comercial Ebony: Avenida San Borja Sur con Parque Sur, cuadra 1

- Supermercado Plaza Vea del Centro Comercial San Borja

- Para mayor información, se puede llamar al teléfono 612-5555 anexos 358, 312 y 236

- La Municipalidad de Jesús María ha instalado tres carpas de campaña en la cuadra nueve de la avenida San Felipe, para junto a los vecinos, empresarios y comerciantes del distrito, ayudar a recolectar víveres, alimentos no perecibles, medicinas y bidones de agua

- En Estados Unidos, está canalizando las donaciones y la ayuda. Los teléfonos son: (001) 202-462-1081 / 202-462-1084 y 462-1085. Además, las colectas que se harán en las misas del domingo de la Iglesia St. Matthew, de Washington DC., se destinarán íntegramente al Perú.

Para donar dinero:

- Las siguientes entidades bancarias han abierto cuentas para el depósito de donaciones:

Banco de Crédito: 193-19999998-0-15 (soles) y 193-19999999-1-16 (dólares).

BBVA Banco Continental: 0011-0444-4444444444 (soles), 0011-0444-4444444446 (dólares), 0011-0444-4444444447 (euros).

Scotiabank: 0005074657 (soles), 0003022500 (dólares).

Interbank: 200-0000001119 (soles), 200-0000001118 (dólares).

- En Estados Unidos, pueden hacer sus donativos a las cuentas abiertas por Interbank (Dólares: 200-0000001118 / Soles: 200-0000001119) a través de las siguientes agencias de envío de dinero: Xoom, Bancomercio, Uno, Dolex, BTS, Viamericas, Ria, Transfast, Pronto Envíos, Vigo, Bob Travel, Girosol, MFIC, Intertransfers y Mateo Express. Interbank informa que estas agencias no cobrarán comisión alguna por los envíos. Para mayor información, llamar gratuitamente al 1-866-352-7378.

- En México, el BBVA Banco Continental ha abierto la siguiente cuenta bancaria para donaciones: Cuenta APOYAME-3(042769263-3) / Fundación BBVA Bancomer a.c.

- En Colombia, el BBVA Banco Continental ha abierto la siguiente cuenta bancaria: Cuenta de ahorros No. 073 213 969 / BBVA Colombia.

- En España, el Centro Peruano en Barcelona ha abierto la siguiente cuenta del banco La Caixa (Barcelona): 2100-0479-21-0200048852. Cualquier información, escribir al correo electrónico centroperuanobcn@gmail.com o llamar a los teléfonos 93 265 07 20, 678 66 89 34 y 608 59 3656.

- En Canadá, Defensa Civil informa que también se puede depositar dinero en la cuenta del Consulado General del Perú en Toronto, Sismo Perú 2007 Account, # 06702 113 - 4329 del Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

- En todo el mundo: La sede española de Cáritas ha habilitado en su página web un espacio para hacer donativos en línea. Visite este sitio para hacer su aporte y, si lo desea, obtenga antes más información.

- El Congreso de la República está recibiendo las donaciones que destinará a la asistencia de las víctimas a través de la cuenta corriente en soles del Banco de Crédito Nº 193-1622366-0-34.

- La Iglesia Católica realizará en todas sus parroquias a nivel nacional colectas los domingos 19 y 26 de este mes.

By Jean Luis Arce

PISCO, Peru (Reuters) - Peruvians pulled hundreds of dead from the rubble of homes and churches on Thursday and bodies piled up on street corners after a huge earthquake ravaged the country’s central coast.

Firefighters, civil defense officials and the United Nations said around 450 were killed in the 8.0-magnitude quake on Wednesday night. Some 2,000 people were injured and the death toll was expected to rise further.

As rescuers scrambled through the debris in search of survivors, dazed residents guarded bodies in the street, unsure where to take them. Many of the victims were poor and were trapped after their traditional adobe-brick homes collapsed.

In the hard-hit town of Pisco, south of the capital Lima, at least 50 bodies were laid out in the main square, where a church fell in on itself during a service.

“They had gone to the church for a mass to commemorate a dead loved one,” said Enrique Gonzales, 48, sobbing as he searched for his wife and three sisters-in-law. “They never came back.”

The U.S. Geological Survey upgraded the quake’s magnitude to 8.0 from an earlier 7.9 measurement, and powerful aftershocks rattled the country on Thursday.

Hospitals were overwhelmed with the injured and morgues with the dead, forcing Peruvians to place dead bodies pulled from crumbled mud-brick houses on city streets.

In the town of Chincha, wounded people lay on the floor in San Jose hospital, where walls were destroyed by the quake.

“We don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to hold a wake for her,” Jose Flores, a boy about 12 years old, said as he stood near the body of his dead mother outside their destroyed home in the city 125 miles south of Lima.

“The wall just came down and crushed her when I was outside,” he said.

PRISON ESCAPE

Hundreds of prisoners ran out of Chincha’s Tambo de Mora prison after the earthquake ripped the old building apart.

“The authorities couldn’t do anything. It was really hard to control all the prisoners,” said Manuel Aguilar, vice president of Peru’s prison authority. He said 29 prisoners stayed behind.

In the San Juan de Dios hospital in Pisco, doctor Ricardo Cabrera said staff was struggling to cope with 200 wounded, more than 40 dead and no power.

Many people were left homeless around Pisco and Chincha, where the huge tremor was felt the most, cracking highways and cutting power and telephone lines.

The Red Cross said it would send planes with tents, blankets and other aid from Panama.

With a major highway ruined, Peruvian rescuers airlifted victims by helicopter and airplane to hospitals in Lima. Officials appealed for blood donors to come forward so they could treat the injured.

President Alan Garcia visited rubble-strewn towns and sent condolences to the families of the quake’s victims.

It was one of the worst natural disasters to hit Peru in the last century. In 1970, an earthquake killed an estimated 50,000 Peruvians in catastrophic avalanches of ice and mud that buried the town of Yungay.

The USGS said the quake on Wednesday was centered about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of around 25 miles

and was closely followed by nine aftershocks.

Peru is a leading minerals producer, but many of its major mines sit far away from the quake zone. The Cerro Lindo copper, zinc and lead mine near the zone suspended operations due to power cuts but its structures were not damaged.

In the central square of Lima, the Peruvian flag flew at half-mast as Garcia declared three days of national mourning.

Original Source: Reuters

Technorati Profile

EXPERTS and archaeologists have welcomed the inclusion of Peru’s Machu Picchu among the modern-day wonders of the world, but fear it could spell the destruction of the ancient Inca citadel.

“Look, we do not want to dampen the euphoria over the honour granted to Machu Picchu, but with it comes immense responsibility,” said Alberto Delgado of the NGO Instituto Machu Picchu, dedicated to the monument’s preservation. “The site is already being badly damaged by tourists and could reach a point of no return should strict measures not be implemented right now.”

Machu Picchu - which sits 8,000ft above sea level on a shelf jutting out of the Andes - was one of the few Inca centres that escaped the destruction of the Spanish Conquistadors. More than 500 years later it seems the new wave of invaders, tourists clad in Timberland boots and North Face jackets and armed only with hard currency, may succeed where the conquistadores failed.

UNESCO, which recognises Machu Picchu as a World Heritage Site has already threatened to put the citadel on its ‘at risk’ list and is seeking a series of measures introduced to halt damage.

It wants to concentrate on halting the erosion caused by hundreds of thousands of tourists clambering over the 600-year-old ruins and the damage to the ecosystem over which Machu Picchu presides. It is surrounded by a cloud forest, where the Andean mountains drop into the Amazonian jungle, supporting rare species of flora and fauna, among them some of the most spectacular orchids in the world.

The greatest damage in the short term comes from the town of Aguas Calientes, which sits at the foot of Machu Picchu, a new settlement that has sprung up to take advantage of the tourists attracted to the site. There has been uncontrolled development and building as hotels, clubs and restaurants spring up, polluting the region and upsetting the sensitive balance of the ecosystem. Archaeologist and former head of Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC), Luis Lumbreras, believes the site is under a very real threat, not just from erosion, but from the buses winding up the mountain, carrying the 2,500 tourists allowed to visit the site every day.

“The vibration of the buses is increasing the risk of parts of the citadel shelf, which is built on granite, falling away,” said Mr Lumbreras. “Fault lines have already been traced.”

Machu Picchu is big business, generating some £30 million every year, and indirectly attracting much of Peru’s £400 million tourist industry. One of the winners from the new recognition of the site will be the British company Orient Express Hotels Ltd, which holds a monopoly over the rail service that links the city of Cusco with the Inca citadel. In a concession granted by disgraced president Alberto Fujimori, currently in prison in Chile, Orient Express Hotels Ltd has 50 per cent control of the railway and the only hotel by the site, the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge.

The INC knows something has to be done and is scrambling to find answers so as to take advantage of the inevitable increase in visitors without permanently damaging the site.

“We are looking for strategies as to how we can handle the inevitable tourist avalanche that will result from the site being declared a wonder of the world,” said Ana María Hoyle of INC.

One of the options being studied is changing the time a ticket is valid. At the moment visitors can buy an all-day ticket, leave the site to eat then return for the afternoon. That may become a thing of the past as tourists are given a strict timetable and forced to view the citadel in supervised groups to prevent climbing over vulnerable parts of the site.

The ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’ campaign was begun in 1999 by a Swiss adventurer, Bernard Weber, with almost 200 nominations coming in from around the globe.

Mr Weber “felt it was time for something new to bring the world together” and to “symbolise a common pride in the global cultural heritage”, said Tia Viering, a spokeswoman.

Mr Weber’s Switzerland-based New7Wonders foundation aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments. It relies on private donations and revenue from selling broadcasting rights.

The original list of seven wonders was compiled in the second century BC by Antipater of Sidon. It featured the Ishtar Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon.

Another list of seven wonders appeared in around the sixth century AD, replacing the gate with the lighthouse of Alexandria. But by the time it appeared, many of the sites had gone - and the existence of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon has never been proven.

Anne Minard
for National Geographic News
June 25, 2007

Penguins about the size of humans roamed South America some 35 million years ago, and they didn’t need ice to survive.

That’s the result of a new study by North Carolina State University paleontologist Julia Clarke and her colleagues. (See a picture gallery of the giant penguin finds.)

The study, which appears in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, unveils two new species of giant penguins from fossils unearthed in Peru’s Atacama Desert.

The discovery pushes the date of penguin migration to equatorial regions back more than 30 million years, to one of the warmest periods of the last 65 million years.

The find also casts doubt on climate as the main factor in penguins’ choice of habitat through history.

“The public is very familiar with the image of penguins and icebergs,” Clarke said.

Today’s penguins are cold-adapted and therefore at grave risk from global warming, she said, but the new fossils suggest that hasn’t always been true.

(Clarke’s research was funded by the National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Council. National Geographic News is a division of the National Geographic Society.)

People-Size Penguins

The new study describes two new species of penguins from fossils, including the first complete skull from an ancient giant penguin.

That species, which the authors say lived in Peru about 36 million years ago, is the third largest penguin known and stood about 4.5 feet (1.5 meters) tall.

The other, dating to 42 million years, was about three feet (a meter) tall, which is comparable to the today’s second largest living penguin, the king penguin.

Most modern penguins in South America are 2 feet (0.6 meter) tall or less.

(See a penguins photo gallery.)

Clarke said it’s counterintuitive that some of the biggest penguin fossils were found in the lower latitudes, closer to the Equator. The commonly accepted belief has it that larger animals live in colder conditions closer to the Poles.

The study also describes the first complete skull of a giant penguin, which provided a tantalizing glimpse into ancient penguin lifestyle.

Differences in the flipper also suggest variations in the animals’ walking and swimming styles, compared with modern penguins, Clarke said.

The neck and skull of the ancient species were connected with different arrangements of muscle, and their beaks were a foot (0.3 meter) long.

“It doesn’t scale,” Clarke said of the beak. “It’s really pointed, and there’s this texturing on the bone, a horny sheath. My speculation is that they’re eating fish, using some kind of spearfishing.”

Cooler Than They Used to Be

Scientists had previously believed that penguins migrated to northern South America during a cold era between four and eight million years ago.

But the new fossils, which Clarke analyzed with colleagues in the U.S. and Peru, are from a warm period more than 30 million years earlier.

(Read related story: “World’s Oldest Penguin Fossils Suggest Birds Outlived Dinos” [April 11, 2006].)

The finding counters another theory published last year suggesting that today’s penguins diversified all over the Earth during a cooling period.

Ewan Fordyce, head of the geology department at the University of Otago, New Zealand, said the new results shed light on penguin “structure, history, and lifestyles during an interval that is not well sampled.”

He believes the study opens a door for more studies of marine vertebrates and their responses to climate change.

“For so long,” he said, “people have viewed evolution and extinction as driven by classical biological interactions, such as competition.

“With the rise of plate tectonic views of the Earth, we are rapidly gaining an appreciation of physical driving forces, such as climate change and change in ocean circulation.”

In the case of the penguins, ocean circulation patterns may have been more influential than global temperature in allowing the giant historical birds to inhabit equatorial regions.

Clarke and her colleagues have proposed that cold-water upwelling off the Peruvian coast may have benefited the penguins, either by providing colder waters or by providing nutrient-rich waters with high amounts of food.

The authors stressed that while the giant penguins of yesteryear may have thrived in warmer climates, modern penguins are cold adapted and quite vulnerable to warming.

Original Source: Giant Penguins Once Roamed Peru Desert, Fossils Show