Is there anything in that Encyc. that says whether or not the bones of the prehistoric penguin were hollow or not? Or what kind of area they may have lived in?
I know today's penguins have solid bones, but if they figured the thing flew, then its bones would have been either really slender or hollow and full of air pockets, like terrestrial birds' bones. If it did have slender or hollow bones, then most of that 200lbs would have been muscle and with that much muscle, most of it likely in the torso and chest, flight may have been possible. Maybe it couldn't lift off like a sparrow can, but had to take a running start like an albatross or prefered to dive off a cliff like other birds that tend to live near cliffs. With that kind of body, I don't see why it couldn't fly in a controlled glide like a seagull using seawind and thermals to keep aloft.
As far as wingspan goes, how does it compare to the wingspan of a typical hangglider to keep a solidboned 150-200 pound human plus equipment aloft and in control?
If the prehistoric penguins did live around cliffs, then landings would have been pretty easy. Ever see a bird curve in an upward motion during flight to light on the edge of a roof or tree branch. A bird that size could use the lift that comes from an ocean breeze to light perfectly on the edge of a cliff without needing a runway and just waddle off to wherever it needed to be. Of course, this assumes they lived in the similar areas as they do now and had cliffs to use.
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Originally Posted by mmmmbacon
Also, you know the saying, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall"? It's hard to imagine how a 200lb bird could land without hurting itself due to the high airspeed the bird would *have* to achieve, even while landing. The article above describes albatross landings as "semi-controlled crashes"... and they're only 25 pounds. Finally, there's a reason turkeys and ostriches and large penguins don't fly. It's because flight doesn't scale well.
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I'd figure if a critter evolved into the role, then it would be well suited to so controlled crash-landings that much weight, maybe extra skin and fat padding on the belly and chest for cushioning, stronger legs perhaps, better control over its wings than we're giving it credit for...who knows.
Here's a
link with more details about prehistoric penguins. This site says up to
300 pounds. It doesn't really appear to touch on whether or not they might have flown. I did find a couple of pages that said that the penguins of old lost their ability to fly around 100 million years ago when climates changed but neither site looked 'official'. I could still post them for the curious.