Giant tropical penguin discovered

ENLARGE IMAGE See a bigger pic of the penguin. In pictures

A giant penguin that preferred the warm waters of the tropics to the icy southern oceans has been discovered.

The fossilised remains of the beast, which lived about 36 million years ago, were found in Peru.

It had a massive spear-like beak, and at one-and-a-half metres tall, towered over modern day penguins.

The bones of the Icadyptes salasi penguin were found along with the remains of four other penguin species, which all lived in the tropics.

Click here for our penguin quiz

Its size isn't the only remarkable thing about the find.

Scientists didn't think penguins lived so far away from the South Pole until much later in Earth's history than when this penguin existed.

Icadyptes salasi skull (top) and a modern day Peruvian penguin