| schema:description 2 | "The fossil of Hokkaidornis abashiriensis, a large avian species, was discovered in Abashiri City. Hokkaidornis is an extinct genus of penguin-like plotopterids (in the family Plotopteridae from the order Suliformes). Its body height of 1.3 meters, or 1.7 meters when the neck is extended, makes it the second largest penguin-like plotopterid. The fossil is the only fossil of a penguin-like plotopterid found in Hokkaido. The species inhabited the sea of Abashiri, which was connected to Ashoro, which had been under the sea, in the same age as the Ashoro fossil fauna, about 25 million years ago. Like penguins, Hokkaidornis abashiriensis did not fly but used their wings to swim. While penguins are closely related to albatrosses and shearwaters and live exclusively in the southern hemisphere, penguin-like plotopterids are closely related to brown boobies and cormorants and have been found only in the North Pacific in the northern hemisphere. Penguins and penguin-like plotopterids represent a good example of convergent evolution, the process whereby organisms that are not closely related to each other independently evolve similar features as a result of adapting to similar environments. The Ashoro Museum of Paleontology displays a Hokkaidornis abashiriensis specimen standing on land and another swimming using its wings for underwater propulsion....(more)" |
