Paleo Penguins Big Breakthrough British English Teacher BW

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GENERAL ENGLISH · BREAKING NEWS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
PALEO
PENGUINS: BIG
BREAKTHROUGH
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1 Warm up
The average height for men is 1.75m. Which of these animals do you think is larger than this? Which
is smaller? Which is around the same size?
1) Emperor penguin 2) Hyacinth macaw (parrot) 3) Southern elephant seal
Now answer these questions:
1. Which animal would you most like to meet face to face? Why?
2. Which would you least like to meet face to face? Why?
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UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH
2 Vocabulary 1
You are going to read a news article about giant penguins. First, match these words with their meanings.
1. beak a. an animal that kills and eat other animals
2. extinct b. animals that are killed and eaten by other animals
3. fossil c. a person who studies rocks to find out about what Earth was like
millions of years ago
4. palaeontologist d. describing a period long ago, before written records
5. predator e. no longer alive, with no living individuals
6. prehistoric f. something that scientists are studying as an example
7. prey g. the body of ancient living things that have been naturally
preserved in stone
8. specimen h. the hard pointed mouth parts of a bird
In pairs, answer these questions:
• Can you think of some examples of predators and their prey? An extinct animal?
• Do you enjoy visiting museums to see fossils and other specimens?
• What time in prehistory or palaeontology do you think is the most interesting? Why?
• How do you think these words will be used in the article?
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3 Reading - Breaking news

Work in A/B pairs. Find the correct page and read the article. Then write questions to ask your
partner to find the missing information. Ask and answer your questions in pairs and make a note of
the answers.
Student A
Giant penguins - you must be joking!

Lucky find indicates a strange prehistoric world
1.
Palaeontologists have announced an important prepared it there, before donating it to the Waikato
discovery which helps them to understand Museum in 2017.
the evolution of a familiar and much-loved 3.
At this point, a team of fossil experts began to
species: the penguin. Reporting in the examine the find. They scanned the specimen and
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, scientists from produced a 3D reconstruction of the bird. This
1)__________________________ in New Zealand have revealed that the bird had much longer legs than
identified a fossil of Kairuku waewaeroa, a previously previously discovered fossil penguins and would have
unknown species of giant penguin which lived stood 5)__________________________ tall, or the size
between 27.3 and 34.6 million years ago. of a ten-year-old child. The creature’s legs were
2.
The fossil was originally discovered in unusually long, which is reflected in the name of the
2)__________________________, by a group of young new species: waewaeroa means long legs in the Maori
people attending a summer camp organised by the language. It also had a thinner body than today’s
Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club (JUNATS) during an penguins, which could indicate how fast it was able
expedition to explore the upper Kawhia Harbour to swim and how deep it was able to dive in search of
area in Waikato, New Zealand. The group leader prey. Kairuku waewaeroa also had an unusually long
3)__________________________ was expecting to find beak.
fossil shellfish, but instead, they found a bone sticking 4.
Very few fossils of giant penguins have been
out of the rocks. He immediately realised this was discovered before. Scientists would like to
4)__________________________, but the fossil was in an understand how and why some predators in
insecure position. Therefore, special permission was prehistory grew very large, and why giant penguins
given to remove it. He took the specimen home and became extinct.
Complete these questions to ask your partner.
1. Where ?
2. When ?
3. name?
4. ?
5. ?
Discuss these questions in pairs.
• What do you think is the most surprising information in this article?

• Do you have any ideas about how or why some prehistoric predators grew very large or why giant
penguins became extinct?

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Work in A/B pairs. Find the correct page and read the article. Then write questions to ask your
partner to find the missing information. Ask and answer your questions in pairs and make a note of
the answers.
Student B
Giant penguins - you must be joking!

Lucky find indicates a strange prehistoric world
1.
Palaeontologists have announced an important and prepared it there, before donating it to the
discovery which helps them to understand the 4)__________________________ in 2017.
evolution of a familiar and much-loved species: 3.
At this point, a team of fossil experts began to
the penguin. Reporting in the Journal of Vertebrate examine the find. They scanned the specimen and
Paleontology, scientists from Massey University in produced a 3D reconstruction of the bird. This
New Zealand have identified a fossil of Kairuku revealed that the bird had much longer legs than
waewaeroa, a previously unknown species of giant previously discovered fossil penguins and would have
penguin which lived between 1)______________ and stood 1.4 m tall, or the size of a ten-year-old child.
______________ million years ago. The creature’s legs were unusually long, which is
2.
The fossil was originally discovered in January 2006, reflected in the name of the new species: waewaeroa
by a group of young people attending a summer means long legs in the Maori language. It also had
camp organised by the Hamilton Junior Naturalist a thinner body than today’s penguins, which could
Club (JUNATS) during an expedition to explore the indicate how fast it was able to swim and how deep it
upper 2)__________________________ area in Waikato, was able to dive in search of prey. Kairukuwaewaeroa
New Zealand. The group leader Chris Templer was also had an unusually long beak.
expecting to find fossil 3)__________________________, 4.
5)__________________________ fossils of giant
but instead they found a bone sticking out of penguins have been discovered before. Scientists
the rocks. He immediately realised this was would like to understand how and why some
something special, but the fossil was in an insecure predators in prehistory grew very large, and why
position. Therefore, special permission was given giant penguins became extinct.
to remove it. He took the specimen home
Complete these questions to ask your partner.
1. How long ago ?

2. What area ?
3. to find?
4. ?
5. ?
Discuss these questions in pairs.
• What do you think is the most surprising information in this article?

• Do you have any ideas about how or why some prehistoric predators grew very large or why giant
penguins became extinct?

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4 Watch a video
Watch the video to find out more about New Zealand’s giant penguins and complete the information.
Part A
species 1 species 2
Crossvallia waiparensis Palaeudypes klekowski
how long ago it lived 1) ______ million years ago —
height 2) ______ m 3) ______ m
weight 4) ______ kg 5) ______ kg
Part B
1. Penguins became much larger as the seas got colder / shortly after the dinosaurs became extinct
/ when fish became larger.
2. Larger animals can eat many different types of prey / stay safe from predators / both of these
options.
3. Larger penguins can also stay underwater longer / lay more eggs / live longer.
4. Penguins eventually became smaller due to competition from sea lions / seals / sea eagles.
5. These animals also stole penguin eggs / destroyed penguin nests / attacked and ate penguins.
6. You can see these giant penguin fossils at a museum / in a new TV documentary / at the zoo.
5 Vocabulary 2
Remember or predict the missing words in these sentences from the video. Watch the video again to
check.
1
1. If you were alive around 50 to 60 million years ago you might have come across a
human-size penguin called Crossvallia waiparensis.
2
2. An amateur paleontologist recently found fossilized leg bones of the penguin
in the town of Waipara in Canterbury, New Zealand.
3. Other extinct creatures discovered there include the world’s largest parrot, a giant eagle, a giant
3
burrowing bat and the moa, a flightless bird.
4 5
4. This newly discovered penguin would have measured a five
foot three inches, or 1.6 metres tall, around two whole feet taller than its largest living relative,
the emperor penguin.
6 7
5. That title goes to the Palaeudypes klekowski, which stood an
8
six and a half feet or two meters tall, over the average human...
9
6. The fossils of the newly discovered penguin ... will be going on display at the
Canterbury Museum later this year.
What’s the same about all of the words?

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Match each word with information on how it is used.
1. giant a. informal, very big or very good; can also be used as a prefix
2. huge/massive b. informal, very large in amount - often used with a number
3. incredible c. very difficult or impossible to believe
4. mega d. very large and with negative connotations
5. monster/monstrous e. very large in size, amount or weight
6. towering f. very large in size; can also be used as a noun referring to an

imaginary creature in children’s stories.
7. whopping g. very tall
Now, use the words in the box to complete the texts.
Text 1
towering / whopping / monstrous / huge
Palaeontologists have been amazed by some of the giant prehistoric animals they have discovered
in New Zealand. The seal Eomachus belegaerensis reached a length of 2.5 m. The
2
giant parrot Heracles inexactus weighed a 7 kg. And what about a 3.6 m tall bird?
That was the Dinornisrobustus, or moa, which became extinct around the end of
the 17th century. By way of comparison, across the planet in Madagascar, its distant cousin the
4
elephant bird stood 3 m tall. Elephant birds went extinct sometime between 1000
and 1200.
Text 2
massive / monster / mega / incredible
1
Today’s big birds are equally impressive. The kakapo parrot of New Zealand weighs
2
in at 4 kg. These birds are rare. It’s hard to believe, but Australia’s emus can reach an
3
1.75 m in height. Standing a bit shorter at 1.7 m is the cassowary. These birds
are capable of killing a human, although thankfully attacks are rare. Finally, everyone knows this
4
-bird - the African ostrich, which stands between 2.1 and 2.8 m tall! These birds
are sometimes farmed for their meat and eggs. Only Sesame Street’s Big Bird is taller, at 2.49 m.

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6 Final activity
Choose one of these activities.
• Talking point
Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.
1. Imagine giant penguins were still alive. What difference would this make to us?
2. Are there any extinct species that you would like to bring back? Why/not?
3. Why is it important for us to know about prehistoric life?
4. Can you think of any other scientific discoveries that have occurred by chance? What about
discoveries made by children or young people?
• Writing
What if giant penguins were still alive? Imagine you are an Antarctic explorer and you have found a
living colony of a species of giant penguin. Choose one of the writing tasks below to describe your
discovery. Use vocabulary from the lesson.
A story (150-200 words): your story must begin with this sentence:
As the sun came up over the mountains, I saw an incredible sight.
An e-mail (150-200 words): reply to this e-mail from your sponsor to show them that the
money they have paid for your expedition is being well-spent.
From: International Geographical Club
Subject: your discoveries
We are holding our annual meeting soon and would like to make an
informal report of your work. Please can you tell us something about the
areas you have visited and any interesting discoveries you have made?
Regards,
The IGC team

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An article (150-200 words): You see this announcement on a popular natural history website.
Articles wanted: Believe it or not!
Have you made a discovery that is completely

unexpected?
What is it? How did you make it? Why is it important?
Write us an article answering these questions. We will

publish the best articles on our website.
7 Optional extension
There are also lots of ways to describe something small in English. Match the words with their
opposites, thinking about the definitions and usages you saw earlier in the lesson.
1. huge and massive a. dwarf
2. mega b. minute and petite
3. monstrous c. dainty
4. whopping d. mini
5. giant e. teeny-weeny
Think of examples for each very small adjective.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
Transcripts
4. Watch a video
Reader: Giant Human-Sized Penguin Bones Found In New Zealand?! If you love penguins, you’re
going to love this. If you were alive around 50 to 60 million years ago you might have
come across a huge human-size penguin called Crossvallia waiparensis.
Reader: An amateur palaeontologist recently found fossilized leg bones of the giant penguin in
the town of Waipara in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Reader: The region is actually a hotspot for finding the fossilized remains of giant ancient animals
from a time long past. Other extinct creatures discovered there include the world’s largest
parrot, a giant eagle, a giant burrowing bat and the moa, a massive flightless bird.
Reader: This newly discovered monster penguin would have measured a whopping five foot three
inches, or 1.6 metres tall, around two whole feet taller than its largest living relative, the
emperor penguin.
Reader: It would have weighed 176 pounds or 80 kilograms, whilst feasting on its aquatic prey
around ancient New Zealand during the Paleocene epoch, sixty-six to fifty-six million
years ago.
Reader: However, this actually isn’t the largest ancient penguin that has been discovered. That
title goes to the monstrous Palaeudypes klekowski, which stood an incredible six and a
half feet or two meters tall, towering over the average human, and weighed a whopping
250 pounds, or 115 kilograms. Imagine the beak on that.
Reader: The discovery of these giant penguins supports the theory that penguins became much,
much larger shortly after the extinction of most dinosaurs around 66 million years ago.
Presumably this was because all of the largest sea and land predators died out, allowing
penguins to dominate and have more resources at their disposal.
Reader: Genetically it’s in an animal’s best interest to evolve as large as possible. The larger you are
the more options for prey you have, and you become prey for less and less other predators.
A much larger penguin would have also been more efficient at conserving body heat and
diving deeper and for longer periods of time.
Reader: Unfortunately, as cool as it would be to see a human-sized penguin, it would appear that
as the years passed by large predators reappeared, causing them to shrink back into the
penguins that we know today.
Reader: Palaeontologists are still working on finding out exactly why the penguins became smaller,
but the main theory is that seals rose up and began to spread around the oceans at the
same time that the penguins began to get smaller.
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Reader: The seals would have clashed with the ancient penguins just as they do today, attacking
them not only as predators but as competition for similar prey. The fossils of the newly
discovered mega penguin, along with the other giants, will be going on display at the
Canterbury Museum later this year.
Reader: So next time you see a penguin at the zoo remember that once upon a time you could
have been staring face-to-face with one or even looking up at it in terror.
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Key
1. Warm up
5 mins.
Students compare the sizes of some birds and animals which will be mentioned in the lesson. They can work in
pairs to do this and then check answers. Pose the follow-up questions for students to consider what it would be
like to come face to face with these creatures. Stress the implications of their relative sizes in this encounter.
Answers
Smaller: a hyacinth parrot is 1 m from head to tail.
Around the same size: an emperor penguin is 1.2 m tall.
Larger: elephant seals are 3.7 m long.
2. Vocabulary 1
10 mins.
Students complete a short matching exercise to define key vocabulary. Check pronunciation when you check
answers - stressed syllables are underlined. Pose the follow-up questions to help students activate the vocabulary
and practise their prediction skills. They should at least be able to speculate that the giant penguins are from the
fossil record and are now extinct.
1. h 2. e 3. g 4. c 5. a 6. d 7. b 8. f
3. Reading - Breaking news
10 mins.
Set up A/B roles for this jigsaw reading task. Give students 2 minutes to read their text - this will help them to
confirm the predictions they made in the previous stage. Then they should work in A+A or B+B pairs to formulate
questions about the missing information in the text. This could be done either as speaking or writing. Monitor
and support as necessary - questions should be understandable at least, and grammatically accurate if possible.
Check the questions that students have written.
Then students regroup as A+B pairs to ask and answer their questions. Encourage them to ask their partner to
repeat information ("Sorry?/Pardon?") or to spell unfamiliar words and place/personal names. They should write
the missing information in the gap in the text. The exercise is self-checking. Note: if you are teaching 1-1, then
your student can assume the A role while the teacher assumes the B role.
Finally, pose the follow-up questions to the A+B pairs and round off the activity with some of their ideas. They
will find out more in the next stage, watching a short video.
Sources:
theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/16/fossilised-long-legged-giant-penguin-identified-as-new-species;
news.sky.com/story/new-zealand-prehistoric-giant-penguin-species-identified-from-fossil-found-by-schoolchildren-
12409671;
livescience.com/giant-extinct-penguin-fossil
Questions A:
1. did the scientists come from/work
2. was the fossil originally discovered
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3. What was the group leader’s

4. What did the group leader immediately realise
5. How tall was the bird
Questions B:
1. did the giant penguin live 2. were the young people exploring when they found
the fossil
3. What type of fossil was the group leader expecting 4. Who did he donate the specimen to
5. How many fossils of giant penguins have been
discovered before
4. Watch a video
10 mins.
Go over the instructions and give students a chance to preview the gap-fill and multiple-choice questions. Students
will both hear and see the information in the video and do not need to be able to pronounce the species names.
These questions are similar to IELTS exam tasks. Play the video and let students check answers in pairs. They will
be watching the video again in the next stage, so only play it a second time now if students are really struggling
to recover the information.
Variation: if your students need to know American measurements, you could ask them to make a note of those
as well as or instead of the metric measurements in the exercise, as both are given.
Extension: in the video, the narrator says, "...you become prey for less and less other predators." Ask students if
they can correct the mistake in this sentence. Answer: the word predators is countable, so it should be "fewer and
fewer".
Part A
Answers:
1) 50 - 60 million years ago (also given as sixty-six to fifty-six million years ago)
2) 1.6m; 3) 2m; 4) 80kg; 5) 115kg
Part B
Facts:
1. shortly after the dinosaurs became extinct 2. both of these options
3. stay underwater longer 4. seals
5. attacked and ate penguins 6. at a museum
5. Vocabulary 2
15 mins.
Students work with vocabulary used to describe very large things. First, they complete a gap-fill from the video.
Give them a minute to look through the sentences and predict/recall the missing words before you play the video
a second time. If they’ve already viewed the video twice, or if you want to save time, they can check answers in
the Tapescript rather than watching it again.
Check answers and pose the follow-up question to establish the general lexical area. Students can then work on
the matching task in pairs, using the sentence contexts to help. Check answers and pronunciation and set the
gap-fill task for students to complete. As with all gap-fill exercises, it is helpful to read the full text first before
choosing the missing words.
1. huge 2. giant 3. massive
4. monster 5. whopping 6. monstrous
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7. incredible 8. towering 9. mega
What’s the same about all of the words?

-They refer to very large sizes.
Words and information used:

1. f 2. e 3. c 4. a 5. d 6. g 7. b
Text 1
1. huge 2. whopping 3. monstrous 4. towering
Text 2
1. massive 2. incredible
3. monster 4. mega
6. Final activity
10 mins.
There are two different activities to choose from to round off the lesson. You could do either or both, depending
on time and what your class prefers.
Activity 1 (talking point) is a straightforward discussion activity for pairs or small groups. Encourage students to
use language from the lesson and give reasons and examples. Monitor and support as necessary, rounding off the
activity with some error correction.
Activity 2 (writing) supports students who are preparing for Cambridge B2 First and B2 First for Schools exams.
Go over the introduction and the three options. You could allow students to choose which task to complete or
you could decide which one you’d like them to do. Students could work in pairs with someone doing the same
activity to brainstorm some ideas about content and vocabulary to include. Monitor and support as necessary.
Students could begin the task in class and complete it for homework.
7. Optional extension
10 mins.
Students must consider the information about the very large vocabulary they saw earlier to complete this exercise.
They can work in pairs. When you check answers, check pronunciation - stressed syllables are underlined. Students
can work in pairs to come up with examples for each very small adjective.
Explanation of answers: giant and dwarf can both be used as nouns to refer to real or imaginary people; huge and
massive and minute and petite are fairly straightforward synonyms of large and small; mega and mini can be prefixes;
monstrous has strong negative connotations while dainty has strong positive ones; whopping and teeny-weeny are
both informal.
1. b 2. d 3. c 4. e 5. a
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HEAAADERLOGORIGHT

GENERAL ENGLISH · BREAKING NEWS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

QrrkoD Scan to review worksheet

1) Emperor penguin 2) Hyacinth macaw (parrot) 3) Southern elephant seal

Now answer these questions:

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 1/8

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

1. beak a. an animal that kills and eat other animals

2. extinct b. animals that are killed and eaten by other animals

5. predator e. no longer alive, with no living individuals

6. prehistoric f. something that scientists are studying as an example

In pairs, answer these questions:

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 2/8

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

3 Reading - Breaking news

Giant penguins - you must be joking!

Complete these questions to ask your partner.

Discuss these questions in pairs.

• What do you think is the most surprising information in this article?

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 3/8

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

Giant penguins - you must be joking!

Complete these questions to ask your partner.

1. How long ago ?

Discuss these questions in pairs.

• What do you think is the most surprising information in this article?

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 4/8

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

Crossvallia waiparensis Palaeudypes klekowski

how long ago it lived 1) ______ million years ago —

height 2) ______ m 3) ______ m

weight 4) ______ kg 5) ______ kg

What’s the same about all of the words?

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 5/8

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

Match each word with information on how it is used.

2. huge/massive b. informal, very large in amount - often used with a number

3. incredible c. very diﬃcult or impossible to believe

4. mega d. very large and with negative connotations

5. monster/monstrous e. very large in size, amount or weight

6. towering f. very large in size; can also be used as a noun referring to an

Now, use the words in the box to complete the texts.

towering / whopping / monstrous / huge

massive / monster / mega / incredible

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PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

Choose one of these activities.

Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.

From: International Geographical Club

Subject: your discoveries

The IGC team

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 7/8

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

Articles wanted: Believe it or not!

Have you made a discovery that is completely

What is it? How did you make it? Why is it important?

Write us an article answering these questions. We will

1. huge and massive a. dwarf

2. mega b. minute and petite

Think of examples for each very small adjective.

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 8/8

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

PALEO PENGUINS: BIG BREAKTHROUGH

height 2) m 3) m

weight 4) kg 5) kg