A penguin big enough to look you in the eye is hardly what you would expect to find in the tropics. But 36 million years ago, giant 1.5-metre penguins roamed the Peruvian coast just 14 degrees south of the equator...
(See http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12127-when-giant-penguins-roamed-the-tropics.html for more of Jeff Hecht's article. The art is a direct link to Kristin Lamm's illustration at http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn12127/dn12127-1_330.jpg)