page_title: South Polar region of the Cretaceous
section_title: Birds
hierarchical_section_title: South Polar region of the Cretaceous / Ecology / Dinosaurs / Birds
caption_attribution_description: Waimanu manneringi, an extinct penguin from the Middle Oligocene of New Zealand.
context_page_description: The South Polar region of the Cretaceous comprised the continent of East Gondwana–modern day Australia and Antarctica–a product of the break-up of Gondwana. The southern region, during this time, was much warmer than it is today, ranging from perhaps 4–8 °C in the latest Cretaceous Maastrichtian in what is now southeastern Australia. This prevented permanent ice sheets from developing and fostered polar forests, which were largely dominated by conifers, cycads, and ferns, and relied on a temperate climate and heavy rainfall. Major fossil-bearing geological formations that record this area are: the Santa Marta and Sobral Formations of Seymour Island off the Antarctic Peninsula; the Snow Hill Island, Lopez de Bertodano, and the Hidden Lake Formations on James Ross Island also off the Antarctic Peninsula; and the Eumeralla and Wonthaggi Formations in Australia.
  The South Polar region housed many endemic species, including several relict forms that had gone extinct elsewhere by the Cretaceous. Of the dinosaur assemblage, the most diverse were the small hypsilophodont-like dinosaurs. The South Polar region also was home to the last labyrinthodont amphibian, Koolasuchus.
context_section_description: The remains of the ancestor of modern birds, the Neornithes, are uncommon in the Mesozoic, with a large radiation occurring in the Neogene of Antarctica. However, the discovery of the Late Cretaceous Vegavis, a goose-like bird, on Vega Island indicates that the major modern bird groups were already common in the Cretaceous. A femur belonging to an unidentified seriema-like bird was also discovered on Vega Island. Bird footprints were preserved in Dinosaur Cove, and, being larger than most Cretaceous bird species, indicate an abundance of larger enantiornithe or ornithurine birds during the Early Cretaceous.
  Two diving birds, possible primitive loons, were discovered in Late Cretaceous Chile and Antarctica: Neogaeornis and Polarornis. Polarornis may have been capable of both diving and flight. The earliest penguins, Crossvallia and Waimanu, are known from 61–62 Ma in the Paleocene, however molecular data suggests penguins first evolved in the Late Cretaceous. Given that these penguins were dated so close to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the group either evolved before the event or very rapidly afterwards.
caption: Early penguins (Waimanu above) may have existed in the Late Cretaceous.[35]
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