And that's not to mention its beak, which is likely to have been long, spear-like and extremely sharp.
Te Papa curator Alan Tennyson recently named what could be the world's biggest known penguin, which thrived 55million to 60million years ago, relatively soon after the demise of the dinosaurs.
Researchers say the 1.65m ancient penguin, called Kumimanu biceae, was much bigger than the largest of these flightless seabirds alive today, the emperor penguin, which grows to about 1.2m and about 40kg.
The bones were found on Hampden Beach in North Otago by Mr Tennyson and co-author Paul Scofield, of the Canterbury Museum, in 2004.
The research has just been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
Mr Tennyson said the giant penguin would have been ''very impressive, as tall as many people, and a very solid, muscly animal built to withstand frequent deep dives to catch its prey.''
''It would not have been the kind of bird that someone could catch alive, it would have been considerably more powerful than a person,'' he said.
University of Otago palaeontologist Prof Ewan Fordyce, who has also attracted international media interest with a series of fossil finds involving extinct marine species, said that the sheer size of the latest find was clearly attracting attention.
He also highlighted its scientific significance, and the insights it gave into penguin evolution, and what had happened after the extinction of the huge marine reptiles, about 65million years ago.
The latest find would also add significantly to Otago's reputation as a Pacific Rim hot spot for the finding of the fossils of ancient marine creatures, and could well boost some forms of overseas tourism to the region.
