🔎🐧💡 At Centro de Interpretación, Paracas, Peru:
In the coastal desert around Paracas, numerous fossils were found. Including various penguin species, such as the Inkayacu pictured here. It lived around 36 million years ago. The 2008 discovered skeleton is the first one with fossilized feathers attached to it. The feathers are so well preserved that it's even possible to draw conclusions about the coloring. They had similar feathers as modern penguins, but more gray or brownish.


The other prehistoric bird in the picture is a pseudotooth bird (pelagornithid). These birds reached a wing span of up to 6 meters and were thus about twice as large as the Andean condor. They were probably related to pelicans or storks and lived all around the world. The fossils found around Paracas are attributed to the same era as the Inkayacu.