Section:GDN 1N PaGe:16 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 17:54 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Thursday 15 Aug ust 2019
(^16) National
Driver suspended for refusal
to operate Pride-themed bus
Damien Gayle
A bus driver has been suspended
after refusing to drive a bus decorated
with a rainbow-coloured number in
celebration of gay pride.
Passengers were left waiting at a
Norwich bus station last week after
the driver allegedly told them that
they had to wait for him to swap buses
because “this bus promotes homo-
sexuality and I refuse to drive it ”,
according to a passenger.
The city had recently celebrated a
pride event and Konectbus buses were
displaying their numbers in rainbow
colours. Alongside a picture of the
driver, student Rebecca Sears, 19,
wrote on Twitter: “Today I was wait-
ing for the 501 bus to Thickthorn and
we were told by the driver we had to
wait for him to swap buses as ‘this bus
promotes homosexuality and I refuse
to drive it’ due to the multicoloured
‘501’ sign.”
She wrote: “Norwich doesn’t appre-
ciate homophobia ,” adding: “I’m
aware everyone is entitled to their
own views.
“However, if you can’t do your job
properly because of your bigotry,
maybe you need [to] rethink your
choices.” Sears said she complained to
staff at the terminus, who told her they
were aware of what had happened.
Go East Anglia, Konectbus’s parent
company, said yesterday: “Go East
Anglia prides itself on values that
support diversity and inclusion and
has been a champion of Norwich
Pride since 2017.
“We particularly want all custom-
ers of whatever background or sexual
orientation to feel comfortable on
our services.
“As a company we do not condone
any behaviour from our drivers that
does not support this view. The driver
involved in this incident has been
suspended and a full investigation is
under way.”
Enormous penguins are believed
to have rapidly evolved between
66m and 56m years ago –
after the dinosaurs
disappeared
Average
woman is
1.62 metres
tall
At up to 1 metre
tall, the king
penguin is the
second largest
living species of
penguin
Leg bones suggest
its feet played a
greater role in
swimming than
those of modern
penguins
Crossvallia waiparensis stood 1.6 metres tall
Source: Canterbury Museum
▲ The fossilised leg bone that helped
identify the new species next to the
same bone in an emperor penguin
Patrick Barkham
A giant penguin that stood as tall as
a person has been identifi ed from
fossilised leg bones discovered by
an amateur palaeontologist on New
Zealand’s South Island.
At 1.6 metres high and 80kg (12st),
the new species, Crossvallia waipar-
ensis , was four times heavier and 40cm
taller than the emperor penguin, the
largest living penguin.
The penguin joins other over-
sized but extinct New Zealand birds,
including the world’s largest parrot ,
an eagle with a three-metre wing-
span, 3.6 metre-tall moas and other
giant penguins.
Huge penguins are believed to have
rapidly evolved in the Palaeocene
epoch, between 66m and 56m years
ago – after the dinosaurs disappeared
and large marine reptiles also vanished
from southern hemisphere waters that
were much warmer than today.
The giant penguin was identifi ed
as new to science by a team from
Canterbury Museum in Christchurch
and Senckenberg natural history
museum in Frankfurt after bones were
found by an amateur palaeontologist,
Leigh Love, at Waipara.
It is the fi fth ancient penguin species
described from fossils uncovered at
Waipara, where a river cuts into a cliff
of greensand.
According to researchers, the
penguin’s leg bones suggest its feet
played a greater role in swimming than
modern penguins.
It is not clear why the giant penguins
disappeared from the oceans millions
of years ago but it may be linked to the
arrival of large marine competitors
such as seals and toothed whales.
The new species is similar to another
prehistoric giant penguin, Crossvallia
unienwillia , which was identifi ed from
a fossilised partial skeleton found in
the Cross Valley in Antarctica in 2000.
Dr Vanesa De Pietri , a curator at Can-
terbury Museum, said the discovery
of a second giant penguin from the
Palaeocene “further reinforces our
theory that penguins attained a giant
size very early in their evolution”.
Dr Paul Scofi eld , senior curator
of natural history at Canterbury
Museum, said fi nding closely related
species in New Zealand and Antarctica
showed the connections between the
now-separated land masses.
“When the Crossvallia species were
alive, New Zealand and Antarctica
were very different from today,”
Scofield added. “Antarctica was
covered in forest and both had much
warmer climates.”
Penguin
as tall as
a person
identifi ed
from fossils
‘This bus promotes
homosexuality and I
refuse to drive it’
Remark allegedly made
by Konectbus’s driver
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