News in Brief Life

Penguin’s flight from Antarctica clocked

The birds’ ancestors may have fled to warmer digs

COMMON GROUND  Penguins, such as these king penguins, may have had a common ancestor that lived about 20 million years ago in Antarctica. The main groups of living penguins began diverging between 16 million and 11 million years ago, a study finds.

Liam Quinn/Flickr

By Beth Mole

- More than 2 years ago

Ancestors of the world’s formally attired flightless birds may have booked it from the South Pole around 12 million years ago to escape a cold spell.