Researchers figure out why penguins can't fly.
Only on April Fools Day, you'll see a flying penguin.
But don’t feel sorry for penguins because they can’t fly – they prefer it that way. At least, that’s the conclusion from a recent study.
It turns out wings can’t serve very well at both flying and diving, and at some point penguins decided they’d rather swim.
To reach this conclusion, study researchers compared the penguin to its close relative, the guillemot.
The two birds share a lot of similarities including appearance. Penguins can’t fly but are great swimmers. The guillemot swims pretty well but flies just barely.
Flying is hard for the guillemot, and it’s guessed that once upon a time it was tough for penguins, too. Thus, they made an unconscious evolutionary decision to frolic in the waves rather than flounder in the sky.
Considering that fossils have been found of penguins that were 4 and a half feet tall, it’s no wonder they chose to not rely on their little wings to go airborne.
They’ve had a long time to decide, though. The oldest penguin fossil ever found was chipped out from a 60-plus million year old Antarctic rock.
