United Kingdom Bruce Museum curator and lead author of study on the giant penguin Dr Daniel Ksepka said he and a team of international researchers officially named it Kumimanu fordycei in a recently published study of the fossil in the Journal of Paleontology.
He said it was fitting the world’s largest penguin be named in honour of Prof Fordyce’s enormous contributions to marine vertebrate paleontology.
Prof Fordyce retired from the University of Otago in 2021, and is now in poor health.
But during his nearly 40-year career, he played an enormous role in building Otago’s Geology Museum collections, publishing volumes of research, and training generations of students.
His research on ancient marine animals from the rocks of North Otago and South Canterbury helped enable the creation of Duntroon’s Vanished World Centre and the proposed Unesco Waitaki Whitestone Geopark.
Dr Ksepka said he had known Prof Fordyce since 2006, when he hosted him as a visiting student.
"We have published a few papers over the years and our 2012 paper on the fossil penguin Kairuku was the most enjoyable project of my career.
"He is simply a legend in the field, for his discoveries, papers, mentoring and storytelling."
Otago geology department curator Marcus Richards said the discovery of many iconic fossil species was due to Prof Fordyce’s extensive field programme.
"Ewan led field excursions with insatiable energy and determination.
"He knew every fossil bone sticking out of a limestone face was likely another new species, and worked with urgency to recover all he could over his 40 years at Otago.
"It was all with the goal to uncover the evolutionary history of animals that existed long ago when New Zealand was at the bottom of the sea," he said.
Prof Fordyce was also recently honoured by former students and colleagues who dedicated a paper to him in the Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals.
Otago Faculty of Dentistry Sir John Walsh Research Institute deputy director Dr Carolina Loch was a senior author on a review which provided a summary of the aquatic mammal fossils known in Latin America to date, with a particular focus on the advances and developments within the past 30 years.
"We dedicated the paper to Ewan in recognition of his support, encouragement and fostering of aquatic mammal palaeontology in Latin America.
"We are truly indebted to him."
