Giant Brown Penguins

This article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/science/01penguin.html?_r=1&ref=science

    Imagine a penguin 5 feet tall and with brown feathers and twice the mass of an emperor penguin. These ancient giant penguins swam and wobbled along the western coast of South America around 40 million years ago. Apparently, the “tuxedo” look of penguins today had not yet evolved, and scientists are still trying to understand the past environmental conditions that gave rise to this adaptation and allowed it to take hold in modern penguin populations.
    The story is mediocre. It’s not all that interesting beyond the first few paragraphs, where the reader is introduced to the peculiarities of this penguin and scientists’ perspectives on its evolution. However, after that, the writer, John Noble Wilford, dipped into a more scientific discussion that would only interest a very select group of scientists (whether interested in penguins or ancient birds or both, these scientists are probably scarce). The talk of “melanosomes” was a particular instance of this esoteric discussion. Not only was it obscure (they have something to do with how paleontologists determine the color of fossilized bird feathers), but it was unclear and lengthy. Some tighter, clearer writing would make this somewhat interesting article short and sweet—like a sparkling white penguin egg.