Together with her team, researcher Sanne Boessenkool discovered a never before found species of penguin, the Waitaha penguin in New Zealand, which has been extinct for an estimated 500 years and is named after the very first inhabitants of the country.
Besides obtaining her Ph.D., the goal of the research was to provide the threatened yellow-eyed penguin with a better chance of survival. “While researching, we noticed that some bones where genetically different than those of the yellow-eyed penguin. Later, we also noticed that the bones were smaller and had a different structure,” explains Boessenkool.
The cartoon penguin here is Opus from one of my favourite comic strips, Bloom County. The person posting comments under the name Lola Granola, once Opus’ fiancee, surely knows what I’m on about. Opus is a large-nosed penguin with a herring addiction who lost track of his mother during the Falklands War.