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Penguin



 
 
Penguins (order
Order (biology)

In Biological classification used in biology, the order is a taxonomic rank between class and family . The superorder is a rank between class and order....
 Sphenisciformes, family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic
Aquatic animal

An aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life.Natural environments and the animals that live in them can be categorized as aquatic or terrestrial ecoregion ....
, flightless
Flightless bird

Flightless birds are birds which lack the ability to fly, relying instead on their ability to run or swim, and are thought to have evolved from their flying ancestors....
 bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator....
. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded
Countershading

Countershading, or Thayer?s Law, is a form of camouflage. Countershading, in which an animal?s pigmentation is darker dorsum , is often thought to have an adaptive effect of reducing conspicuous shadows cast on the ventral region of an animal?s body....
 dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers
Flipper (anatomy)

A flipper is typically flat Limb evolved for movement through water. Various creatures have evolved flippers, for example most fish , as well as certain mammals , reptiles , and birds ....
. Most penguins feed on krill
Krill

Krill are a type of shrimp-like marine invertebrate animal. These small crustaceans are important organisms of the zooplankton, particularly as food for baleen whales, manta rays, whale sharks, crabeater seals, and other pinniped, and a few seabird species that feed almost exclusively on them....
, fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, squid
Squid

Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, Symmetry #Bilateral_symmetry, a mantle , and cephalopod arms....
, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans.

Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
.






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Penguins (order
Order (biology)

In Biological classification used in biology, the order is a taxonomic rank between class and family . The superorder is a rank between class and order....
 Sphenisciformes, family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic
Aquatic animal

An aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life.Natural environments and the animals that live in them can be categorized as aquatic or terrestrial ecoregion ....
, flightless
Flightless bird

Flightless birds are birds which lack the ability to fly, relying instead on their ability to run or swim, and are thought to have evolved from their flying ancestors....
 bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator....
. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded
Countershading

Countershading, or Thayer?s Law, is a form of camouflage. Countershading, in which an animal?s pigmentation is darker dorsum , is often thought to have an adaptive effect of reducing conspicuous shadows cast on the ventral region of an animal?s body....
 dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers
Flipper (anatomy)

A flipper is typically flat Limb evolved for movement through water. Various creatures have evolved flippers, for example most fish , as well as certain mammals , reptiles , and birds ....
. Most penguins feed on krill
Krill

Krill are a type of shrimp-like marine invertebrate animal. These small crustaceans are important organisms of the zooplankton, particularly as food for baleen whales, manta rays, whale sharks, crabeater seals, and other pinniped, and a few seabird species that feed almost exclusively on them....
, fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, squid
Squid

Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, Symmetry #Bilateral_symmetry, a mantle , and cephalopod arms....
, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans.

Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate
Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold....
 zone, and one species, the Galápagos Penguin
Galápagos Penguin

The Gal?pagos Penguin is a penguin endemic to the Gal?pagos Islands. It is the only penguin to live on the equator and can survive due to the cool temperatures resulting from the Humboldt Current and cool waters from great depths brought up by the Cromwell Current....
, lives near the equator.

The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin
Emperor Penguin

The Emperor Penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is Endemism in birds to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in height and weighing anywhere from 22?37 kg ....
 (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh
Mass

In physical science, mass refers to the degree of acceleration a body acquires when subject to a force: bodies with greater mass are accelerated less by the same force....
 35 kg (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin
Little Penguin

Korora redirects here. For the Kororaa Linux operating system, see Kororaa.The Little Penguin is the smallest species of penguin. The penguin, which is about 43 cm tall, is found on the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand, with possible records from Chile....
 (also known as the Fairy Penguin), which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kg (2.2 lb). Among extant penguins larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates (see also Bergmann's Rule
Bergmann's Rule

In zoology, Bergmann's rule is an ecogeographic rule that correlates latitude with body mass in animals. Broadly it asserts that within a species the body mass increases with latitude and colder climate, or that within closely related species that differ only in relation to size that one would expect the larger species to be found at the hig...
). Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as tall or as heavy as an adult human (see below for more). These were not restricted to Antarctic regions; on the contrary, subantarctic
Subantarctic

The Subantarctic is a region in the Southern Hemisphere immediately north of Antarctica and covering the many islands of the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean, which are north of the Antarctic Convergence....
 regions harboured high diversity, and at least one giant penguin occurred in a region not quite 2,000 km south of the Equator
Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
 35 mya
Mya (unit)

In astronomy, geology, and paleontology, mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for "million years ago". Like the related unit bya, mya is traditionally written in lower case....
, in a climate decidedly warmer than today.

Penguins seem to have no special fear of humans and have approached groups of explorers without hesitation. This is probably because penguins have no land predators in Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
 or the nearby offshore islands. Instead, penguins are at risk at sea from predators such as the leopard seal
Leopard Seal

The Leopard seal is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic , and is near the top of the Antarctic food chain. It is most common in the southern hemisphere along the coast of Antarctica and on most sub-Antarctic islands, but can also be found on the coasts of southern Australia, Tasmania, South Africa, New Zealand, Lord Howe Isla...
. Typically, penguins do not approach closer than about 3 meters (10 ft) at which point they become nervous. This is also the distance that Antarctic tourists are told to keep from penguins (tourists are not supposed to approach closer than 3 meters, but are not expected to withdraw if the penguins come closer).

Penguin biology


Anatomy

Penguins are superbly adapted to an aquatic
Aquatic ecosystem

An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem located in water bodies. Biocoenosis of biota that are dependent on each other and on their environment live in aquatic ecosystems....
 life. Their vestigial wing
Wing

A wing is a surface used to produce Lift for flight through the Earth's atmosphere or another gaseous or fluid medium. The wing shape is usually an airfoil....
s have become flippers, useless for flight in the air. In the water, however, penguins are astonishingly agile. Within the smooth plumage
Plumage

Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season....
 a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. The air layer also helps insulate the birds in cold waters. On land, penguins use their tail
Tail

The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals and birds....
s and wings to maintain balance for their upright stance.

All penguins are countershaded
Countershading

Countershading, or Thayer?s Law, is a form of camouflage. Countershading, in which an animal?s pigmentation is darker dorsum , is often thought to have an adaptive effect of reducing conspicuous shadows cast on the ventral region of an animal?s body....
 for camouflage
Camouflage

Camouflage is a method of cryptic or concealing coloration that allows an otherwise visible organism or object to remain invisibility through deception....
 – that is, they have a white underside and a dark (mostly black) upperside. A predator looking up from below (such as an orca
Orca

The Killer Whale or Orca , less commonly, Blackfish or Seawolf, is the largest species of the dolphin family. It is found in all the world's oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctica regions to warm, tropical seas....
 or a leopard seal
Leopard Seal

The Leopard seal is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic , and is near the top of the Antarctic food chain. It is most common in the southern hemisphere along the coast of Antarctica and on most sub-Antarctic islands, but can also be found on the coasts of southern Australia, Tasmania, South Africa, New Zealand, Lord Howe Isla...
) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface. The dark plumage on their backs camouflages them from above.

Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h (3.7 to 7.5 mph), though there are reports of velocities of 27 km/h (17 mph) (which are more realistic in the case of startled flight). The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes. Larger penguins can dive deep in case of need. Dives of the large Emperor Penguin have been recorded which reach a depth of 565 m (1,870 ft) and last up to 22 minutes.

Penguins either waddle on their feet or slide on their bellies across the snow, a movement called "tobogganing", which conserves energy while moving quickly. They also jump with both feet together if they want to move more quickly or cross steep or rocky terrain.

Penguins have an average sense of hearing
Hearing (sense)

Hearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear. The inability to hear is called deafness....
 for birds; this is used by parents and chicks to locate one another in crowded colonies. Their eye
Eye

Eyes are Organ that detect light, and send signals along the optic nerve to the visual system and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system....
s are adapted for underwater vision, and are their primary means of locating prey and avoiding predators; in air it has been suggested that they are nearsighted, although research has not supported this hypothesis.

Penguins have a thick layer of insulating feathers which serve to keep them warm in water (heat loss in water is much greater than in air). The Emperor penguin (the largest penguin) has the largest body mass of all penguins, which further reduces relative surface area and heat loss. They also are able to control blood flow to their extremities, reducing the amount of blood which gets cold, but still keeping the extremities from freezing. In the extreme cold of the Antarctic winter, the females are at sea fishing for food leaving the males to brave the weather by themselves. They often huddle together to keep warm and rotate positions to make sure that each penguin gets a turn in the center of the heat pack.

They can drink salt water because their supraorbital gland
Supraorbital gland

The supraorbital gland is a type of lateral nasal gland found in some species of marine birds, particularly penguins, which removes sodium chloride from the bloodstream....
 filters excess salt from the bloodstream. The salt is excreted in a concentrated fluid from the nasal passages.

Breeding

Penguins form monogamous pairs for a breeding season, though the rate the same pair recouples varies drastically. Most penguins lay two eggs in a clutch, though the two largest species, the Emperor and the King Penguin
King Penguin

The King Penguin is the second largest species of penguin at about 90 cm tall and weighing 11 to 16 kg , second only to the Emperor Penguin....
s, lay only one. With the exception of the Emperor Penguin in all penguins share the incubation
Avian incubation

Incubation is the process by which birds hatch their Egg , and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period....
 duties. These incubation shifts can last days and even weeks as one member of the pair feeds at sea.

Penguin eggs are smaller than any other bird species when compared proportionally to the weight of the parent birds; at 52 grams, the Little Penguin egg is 4.7% of its mothers' weight, and the 450-gram Emperor Penguin egg is 2.3%. The relatively thick shell forms between 10 and 16% of the weight of a penguin egg, presumably to minimise risk of breakage in an adverse nesting environment. The yolk, too, is large, and comprises 22–31% of the egg. Some yolk often remains when a chick is born, and is thought to help sustain it if parents are delayed in returning with food.

When mothers lose a chick
Chick

Chick may refer to:...
, they sometimes attempt to "steal" another mother's chick, usually unsuccessfully as other females in the vicinity assist the defending mother in keeping her chick. In some species, such as Emperor Penguin
Emperor Penguin

The Emperor Penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is Endemism in birds to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in height and weighing anywhere from 22?37 kg ....
s, young penguins assemble in large groups called crèche
Crèche (zoology)

The Cr?che in zoology refers to care of another's offspring, for instance in a colony. This term is used in the study of bird colonies. Many penguins form cr?ches, in addition to many other birds such as the Canada Goose, Common Eider and Common Shelduck....
s.

Range

Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
. In fact, only a few species of penguin actually live so far south. At least 10 species live in the temperate
Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold....
 zone; one, the Galápagos Penguin
Galápagos Penguin

The Gal?pagos Penguin is a penguin endemic to the Gal?pagos Islands. It is the only penguin to live on the equator and can survive due to the cool temperatures resulting from the Humboldt Current and cool waters from great depths brought up by the Cromwell Current....
, lives as far north as the Galápagos Islands
Galápagos Islands

Gal?pagos Islands are an archipelago of Island#Volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador....
, but this is only made possible by the cold, rich waters of the Antarctic Humboldt
Humboldt

Humboldt may refer to:...
 current which flows around these islands.

Major populations of penguins are found in: Antarctica
Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
, Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
.

Isabelline penguins

Perhaps one in 50,000 penguins (of most species) are born with brown rather than black plumage. These are called Isabelline penguins, possibly in reference to the legend that the archduchess Isabella of Austria vowed not to change her undergarments until her husband united the northern and southern Low Countries by taking the city of Ostend
Ostend

||-||-||}Ostend  is a Belgium city and Municipalities in Belgium located in the Flemish Region Provinces of Belgium of West Flanders....
 – which took three years to accomplish. Isabellinism is different from albinism. Isabelline penguins tend to live shorter lives than normal penguins, as they are not well-camouflaged against the deep, and are often passed over as mates.

Systematics and evolution


Living species and recent extinctions


The number of extant penguin species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 is debated. Depending on which authority is followed, penguin biodiversity
Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems....
 varies between 17 and 20 living species, all in the subfamily Spheniscinae. Some sources consider the White-flippered Penguin
White-flippered Penguin

The White-flippered Penguin is a small penguin about 30 cm tall and weighing 1.5 kg. It gains its name from the white markings on its flippers, unique to the subspecies....
 a separate Eudyptula
Eudyptula

The genus Eudyptula contains two species of penguin. It is found in southern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the Chatham Islands.Eudyptula minor is commonly known as the Little Penguin, Little Blue Penguin, or Fairy Penguin....
 species, while others treat it as a subspecies of the Little Penguin
Little Penguin

Korora redirects here. For the Kororaa Linux operating system, see Kororaa.The Little Penguin is the smallest species of penguin. The penguin, which is about 43 cm tall, is found on the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand, with possible records from Chile....
; the actual situation seems to be more complicated. Similarly, it is still unclear whether the Royal Penguin
Royal Penguin

The Royal Penguin inhabits the waters surrounding Antarctica. Royals look very much like Macaroni Penguins, but have a white face and chin instead of the Macaronis' black visage....
 is merely a color morph of the Macaroni penguin
Macaroni Penguin

The Macaroni Penguin is a species of penguin that is closely related to the Royal Penguin. There are about 18 million Macaroni Penguins in existence, and the number is decreasing, due to unideal environmental conditions and their many predators....
. Also eligible to be a separate species is the Northern population of Rockhopper penguins
Rockhopper penguin

The rockhopper penguins are two species of penguins that until recently were considered conspecific under the name Rockhopper Penguin :* Southern Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome....
.

Updated after Marples (1962), Acosta Hospitaleche (2004), and Ksepka et al. (2006).

Subfamily Spheniscinae – Modern penguins
  • Aptenodytes
    Aptenodytes

    The genus Aptenodytes contains two extant species of penguins collectively known as "the great penguins"....
     – Great penguins
    • King Penguin
      King Penguin

      The King Penguin is the second largest species of penguin at about 90 cm tall and weighing 11 to 16 kg , second only to the Emperor Penguin....
      , Aptenodytes patagonicus
    • Emperor Penguin
      Emperor Penguin

      The Emperor Penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is Endemism in birds to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in height and weighing anywhere from 22?37 kg ....
      , Aptenodytes forsteri
  • Pygoscelis
    Pygoscelis

    The genus Pygoscelis contains three living species of penguins collectively known as "The Brush-Tailed Penguins". Their appearance - black above, white below - is that of what most people think of when they think of penguins....
     – Brush-tailed penguins
    • Adelie Penguin
      Adelie Penguin

      The Ad?lie Penguin is a type of penguin common along the entire Antarctic coast and nearby islands. They are among most southerly distributed of all seabirds, along with Emperor Penguin, South Polar Skua, Wilson's Storm Petrel, Snow Petrel, and Antarctic Petrel....
      , Pygoscelis adeliae
    • Chinstrap Penguin
      Chinstrap Penguin

      The Chinstrap Penguin is a species of penguin which is found in the South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica, the South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Bouvet Island, Balleny Islands and Peter Island....
      , Pygoscelis antarctica
    • Gentoo Penguin
      Gentoo penguin

      The Gentoo Penguin , Pygoscelis papua, is easily recognized by the wide white stripe extending like a bonnet across the top of its head. Chicks have grey backs with white fronts....
      , Pygoscelis papua
  • Eudyptula
    Eudyptula

    The genus Eudyptula contains two species of penguin. It is found in southern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the Chatham Islands.Eudyptula minor is commonly known as the Little Penguin, Little Blue Penguin, or Fairy Penguin....
     – Little penguins
    • Little Blue Penguin, Eudyptula minor
    • Northern Little Penguin, Eudyptula albosignata (provisional)
  • Spheniscus
    Spheniscus

    The banded penguins are the penguins of the Spheniscus genus. There are four living species of penguins known as banded penguins, and all have similar coloration....
     – Banded penguins
    • Magellanic Penguin
      Magellanic Penguin

      The Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus, is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands, with some bird migration to Brazil....
      , Spheniscus magellanicus
    • Humboldt Penguin
      Humboldt Penguin

      The Humboldt Penguin is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Peru and Chile. Its nearest relatives are the African Penguin, the Magellanic Penguin and the Gal?pagos Penguin....
      , Spheniscus humboldti
    • Galapagos Penguin
      Galápagos Penguin

      The Gal?pagos Penguin is a penguin endemic to the Gal?pagos Islands. It is the only penguin to live on the equator and can survive due to the cool temperatures resulting from the Humboldt Current and cool waters from great depths brought up by the Cromwell Current....
      , Spheniscus mendiculus
    • African Penguin
      African Penguin

      The African Penguin , also known as the Black-footed Penguin or Jackass Penguin is found on the south-western coast of Africa, living in colonies on 24 islands between Namibia and Algoa Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with the largest colony on Gansbaai, near Kleinbaai....
      , Spheniscus demersus
  • Megadyptes
    Megadyptes

    Megadyptes is a genus of penguin which consists of two species, Megadyptes antipodes and the extinct Megadyptes waitaha ....
    • Yellow-eyed Penguin
      Yellow-eyed Penguin

      The Yellow-eyed Penguin or HoiHo is a penguin native to New Zealand. Previously thought closely related to the Little Penguin , molecular research has shown it more closely related to penguins of the genus Eudyptes....
      , Megadyptes antipodes
    • Waitaha Penguin
      Waitaha Penguin

      The Waitaha Penguin is an extinction species of New Zealand penguin discovered in November 2008.The new species was discovered by University of Otago and University of Adelaide scientists comparing the foot bones of 500-year-old, 100-year-old and modern specimens of penguins....
      , Megadyptes waitaha (extinct)
  • Eudyptes
    Eudyptes

    The term Crested penguin is the name given to several species of penguin of the genus Eudyptes. The exact number varies between four and seven depending on the authority, and a Chatham Islands species may have become extinct in the 19th century....
     – Crested penguins
    • Fiordland Penguin
      Fiordland Penguin

      The Fiordland Crested Penguin , also known as Tawaki , is a species of crested penguin from New Zealand. It breeds along the Fiordland coast and its outlying islands as well as on Stewart Island/Rakiura....
      , Eudyptes pachyrynchus
    • Snares Penguin
      Snares Penguin

      The Snares Penguin , also known as the Snares Crested Penguin and the Snares Islands Penguin, is a penguin from New Zealand. It breeds on The Snares, a group of islands off the southern coast of the South Island....
      , Eudyptes robustus
    • Erect-crested Penguin
      Erect-crested Penguin

      The Erect-crested Penguin is a penguin from New Zealand. It breeds on the Bounty Islands and Antipodes Islands.This is a medium-small, yellow-crested, black-and-white penguin, at 50-70 cm and weighing 2.7-5.2 kg ....
      , Eudyptes sclateri
    • Southern Rockhopper Penguin
      Southern Rockhopper Penguin

      The Southern Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome, is a species of penguin. It occurs in subantarctic waters of the western Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as around the southern coasts of South America....
      , Eudyptes chrysocome
    • Northern Rockhopper Penguin
      Northern Rockhopper Penguin

      The Northern Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes moseleyi, is a species of penguin. More than 80% of Northern Rockhoppers breed on Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island in the south Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder found on Ile Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Island in the Indian Ocean....
      , Eudyptes moseleyi
    • Royal Penguin
      Royal Penguin

      The Royal Penguin inhabits the waters surrounding Antarctica. Royals look very much like Macaroni Penguins, but have a white face and chin instead of the Macaronis' black visage....
      , Eudyptes schlegeli (disputed)
    • Macaroni Penguin
      Macaroni Penguin

      The Macaroni Penguin is a species of penguin that is closely related to the Royal Penguin. There are about 18 million Macaroni Penguins in existence, and the number is decreasing, due to unideal environmental conditions and their many predators....
      , Eudyptes chrysolophus
    • Chatham Islands Penguin
      Chatham Islands Penguin

      The Chatham Islands Penguin was a species of penguin, now extinct. It is known only from subfossil bones, but may have become extinctas recently as the late 19th century as a bird kept captive at some time between 1867 and 1872 might refer to this taxon....
      , Eudyptes sp. (extinct)


Fossil genera

Order Sphenisciformes
  • Basal
    Basal (phylogenetics)

    In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
     and unresolved taxa
    (all fossil
    Fossil

    Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
    )
    • Waimanu
      Waimanu

      Waimanu was a genus of early penguin which lived soon after the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. This means that the radiation of the Neoaves that include most modern birds either took place before the extinction of the dinosaurs, or it must have been extremely rapid in geological terms....
       – basal (Middle-Late Paleocene)
    • Perudyptes (Middle Eocene of Atacama Desert, Peru) – basal?
    • Spheniscidae gen. et sp. indet. CADIC P 21 (Leticia Middle Eocene of Punta Torcida, Argentina)
    • Delphinornis (Middle/Late Eocene? – Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – Palaeeudyptinae, basal, new subfamily 1?
    • Archaeospheniscus
      Archaeospheniscus

      Archaeospheniscus is an extinct genus of large penguins. It currently contains three species, known from somewhat fragmentary remains. A. wimani, the smallest species , was found in Middle or Late Eocene strata of the La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica, whereas the other two, about the size of a modern Emperor Penguin,...
       (Middle/Late Eocene – Late Oligocene) – Palaeeudyptinae? New subfamily 2?
    • Marambiornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – Palaeeudyptinae, basal, new subfamily 1?
    • Mesetaornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – Palaeeudyptinae, basal, new subfamily 1?
    • Tonniornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica)
    • Wimanornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica)
    • Duntroonornis (Late Oligocene of Otago, New Zealand) – possibly Spheniscinae
    • Korora (Late Oligocene of S Canterbury, New Zealand)
    • Platydyptes (Late Oligocene of New Zealand) – possibly not monophyletic; Palaeeudyptinae, Paraptenodytinae or new subfamily?
    • Spheniscidae gen. et sp. indet. (Late Oligocene/Early Miocene of Hakataramea, New Zealand)
    • Madrynornis (Puerto Madryn Late Miocene of Argentina) – possibly Spheniscinae
    • Pseudaptenodytes
      Pseudaptenodytes

      The extinct penguin genus Pseudaptenodytes contains the type species P. macraei; smaller bones have been assigned to P. minor, although it is not certain whether they are really from a different species or simply of younger individuals; both taxa are known by an insufficient selection of bones....
       (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene)
    • Dege (Early Pliocene of South Africa) – possibly Spheniscinae
    • Marplesornis (Early Pliocene) – possibly Spheniscinae
    • Nucleornis (Early Pliocene of Duinfontain, South Africa) – possibly Spheniscinae
    • Inguza (Late Pliocene) – probably Spheniscinae; formerly Spheniscus predemersus
  • Family Spheniscidae
    • Subfamily Palaeeudyptinae
      Palaeeudyptinae

      The New Zealand Giant Penguins, Palaeeudyptinae, are an extinct subfamily of penguins. It includes several genus of medium-sized to very large species - including Palaeeudyptes marplesi and Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi which grew tall or even larger, and the massive Pachydyptes ponderosus which weighed at least as much a...
       – Giant penguins (fossil
      Fossil

      Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
      )
      • Crossvallia (Cross Valley Late Paleocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – tentatively assigned to this subfamily
      • Anthropornis (Middle Eocene? – Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – tentatively assigned to this subfamily
        • Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin, Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi
          Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi

          Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, or Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin, was a penguin species that lived 45?37 million years ago, during the Late Eocene and the earliest part of the Oligocene according to evaluationary theory....
      • Icadyptes (Late Eocene of Atacama Desert, Peru)
      • Palaeeudyptes
        Palaeeudyptes

        Palaeeudyptes is an extinct genus of large penguins, currently containing four accepted species. They were probably larger than almost all living penguins, with the smaller species being about the size of an Emperor Penguin and the largest ones having stood about 1.5 meters tall....
         (Middle/Late Eocene – Late Oligocene) – polyphyletic; some belong in other subfamilies
      • Pachydyptes
        Pachydyptes

        Pachydyptes is an extinct genus of penguin. It contains the single species Pachydyptes ponderosus, the New Zealand Giant Penguin. This taxon is known from a few bones from Late Eocene rocks in the area of Otago, and a fine specimen found near Kawhia, New Zealand, in January 2006....
         (Late Eocene)
      • Anthropodyptes
        Anthropodyptes

        Anthropodyptes is a poorly known monotypic genus of extinct penguin. It contains the single species Anthropodyptes gilli, known from a Middle Miocene humerus from Australia....
          (Middle Miocene) – tentatively assigned to this subfamily
    • Subfamily Paraptenodytinae – Stout-footed penguins (fossil
      Fossil

      Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
      )
      • Arthrodytes (San Julian Late Eocene/Early Oligocene – Patagonia Early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina)
      • Paraptenodytes
        Paraptenodytes

        Paraptenodytes is an extinct genus of penguins which contains two or three species sized between a Magellanic Penguin and a small Emperor Penguin ....
         (Early – Late Miocene/Early Pliocene)
    • Subfamily Palaeospheniscinae – Slender-footed penguins (fossil
      Fossil

      Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
      )
      • Eretiscus (Patagonia Early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina)
      • Palaeospheniscus
        Palaeospheniscus

        Palaeospheniscus is an extinct genus of penguins which contains three species at present. They are all known from one or two handful of bones....
         (Early? – Late Miocene/Early Pliocene) – includes Chubutodyptes


Taxonomy

Some recent sources apply the phylogenetic taxon to what here is referred to as Spheniscinae. Furthermore, they restrict the phylogenetic taxon Sphenisciformes to flightless taxa, and establish the phylogenetic taxon as equivalent to the Linnean taxon Sphenisciformes, i.e., including any flying basal "proto-penguins" to be discovered eventually. Given that neither the relationships of the penguin subfamilies to each other nor the placement of the penguins in the avian phylogeny is presently resolved, this seems spurious and in any case is confusing; the established Linnean system is thus followed here.

Evolution

The evolution
Evolution

In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
ary history of penguins is well-researched and represents a showcase of evolutionary biogeography
Biogeography

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of biodiversity over space and time. It aims to reveal where organisms live, and at what abundance....
; though as penguin bones of any one species vary much in size and few good specimens are known, the alpha taxonomy
Alpha taxonomy

Alpha taxonomy is the science of finding, describing and categorising organisms, thus leading to the recognition of proposed taxonomic groups, or taxon , which may then be naming conventions....
 of many prehistoric forms still leaves much to be desired. Some seminal articles about penguin prehistory have been published since 2005, the evolution of the living genera can be considered resolved by now.

The basal
Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
 penguins lived around the time of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event somewhere in the general area of (southern) New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
 and Byrd Land, Antarctica. Due to plate tectonics
Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s....
, these areas were at that time less than apart rather than the of today. The most recent common ancestor
Most recent common ancestor

In genetics, the most recent common ancestor of any set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all organisms in the group are directly Common descent....
 of penguins and their sister clade
Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
 can be roughly dated to the Campanian
Campanian

The Campanian is a faunal stage on the geologic time scale occurring from 83.5 ? 0.7 annum to 70.6 ? 0.6 Ma .It is the middle stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch ....
Maastrichtian
Maastrichtian

The Maastrichtian is the last faunal stage of the Cretaceous geologic period, and therefore of the Mesozoic geologic era. It spanned from 70.6 ? 0.6 annum to 65.5 ? 0.3 Ma ....
 boundary, around 70–68 mya. What can be said as certainly as possible in the absence of direct (i.e., fossil) evidence is that by the end of the Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
, the penguin lineage must have been evolutionarily well distinct, though much less so morphologically
Morphology (biology)

The term morphology in biology refers to form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs....
; it is fairly likely that they were not yet entirely flightless at that time, as flightless birds have generally low resilience to the breakdown of trophic webs which follows the initial phase of mass extinctions because of their below-average dispersal capabilities (see also Flightless Cormorant
Flightless Cormorant

The Flightless Cormorant , also known as the Galapagos Cormorant, is a cormorant native to the Galapagos Islands, and an example of the highly unusual fauna there....
).

The basal fossils
The oldest known fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
 penguin species is Waimanu manneringi, which lived in the early Paleocene
Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, "early dawn of the recent" is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65.5 ? 0.3 Mega-annum to 55.8 ? 0.2 Ma . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic era ....
 epoch of New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
, or about 62 mya
Mya (unit)

In astronomy, geology, and paleontology, mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for "million years ago". Like the related unit bya, mya is traditionally written in lower case....
. While they were not as well-adapted to aquatic life as modern penguins, Waimanu
Waimanu

Waimanu was a genus of early penguin which lived soon after the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. This means that the radiation of the Neoaves that include most modern birds either took place before the extinction of the dinosaurs, or it must have been extremely rapid in geological terms....
 were generally loon
Loon

The loons or divers are a group of aquatic birds found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of one genus, Gavia, family , Gaviidae, and order Gaviiformes all of their own....
-like birds but already flightless, with short wings adapted for deep diving. They swam on the surface using mainly their feet, but the wings were – as opposed to most other diving birds, living and extinct – already adapting to underwater locomotion.

Perudyptes from northern Peru was dated to 42 mya. An unnamed fossil from Argentina
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
 proves that by the Bartonian
Bartonian

The Bartonian is a faunal stage of the middle Eocene epoch . It spans the time between 40.4 ? 0.2 annum and 37.2 ? 0.2 Ma ....
 (Middle Eocene
Eocene

The Eocene Geologic time scale is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era....
), some 39–38 mya, primitive penguins had spread to South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 and were in the process of expanding into Atlantic waters.

Palaeëudyptines
During the Late Eocene and the Early Oligocene
Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
 (40–30 mya), some lineages of gigantic penguins existed. Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin was the tallest, growing nearly 1.80 meters (6 ft) tall. The New Zealand Giant Penguin was probably the heaviest, weighing 80 kg or more. Both were found on New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
, the former also in the Antarctic farther eastwards.

Traditionally, most extinct species of penguins, giant or small, had been placed in the paraphyletic subfamily called Palaeeudyptinae
Palaeeudyptinae

The New Zealand Giant Penguins, Palaeeudyptinae, are an extinct subfamily of penguins. It includes several genus of medium-sized to very large species - including Palaeeudyptes marplesi and Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi which grew tall or even larger, and the massive Pachydyptes ponderosus which weighed at least as much a...
. More recently, with new taxa being discovered and placed in the phylogeny if possible, it is becoming accepted that there were at least two major extinct lineages. One or two closely related ones occurred in Patagonia
Patagonia

Patagonia is a geographic region containing the southernmost portion of South America. Located in Argentina and Chile, it comprises the Andes mountains to the west and south, and plateaux and low plains to the east....
, and at least one other – which is or includes the paleeudyptines as recognized today – occurred on most Antarctic and subantarctic
Subantarctic

The Subantarctic is a region in the Southern Hemisphere immediately north of Antarctica and covering the many islands of the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean, which are north of the Antarctic Convergence....
 coasts.

But size plasticity seems to have been great at this initial stage of penguin radiation
Adaptive radiation

An adaptive radiation is a rapid evolutionary radiation characterized by an increase in the morphological and ecological diversity of a single, rapidly diversifying lineage....
: on Seymour Island
Seymour Island

Seymour Island is an island in the chain of 16 major islands around the tip of the Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula. Graham Land is closer to South America than any other part of that continent.....
, Antarctica, for example, around 10 known species of penguins ranging in size from medium to huge apparently coexisted some 35 mya during the Priabonian
Priabonian

The Priabonian is the final faunal stage of the Eocene epoch . It spans the time between 37.2 ? 0.1 annum and 33.9 ? 0.1 Ma ....
 (Late Eocene). It is not even known whether the gigantic palaeeudyptines constitute a monophyletic lineage, or whether gigantism was evolved independently in a much restricted Palaeeudyptinae and the Anthropornithinae – whether they were considered valid, or whether there was a wide size range present in the Palaeeudyptinae as delimited as usually done these days (i.e., including Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi
Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi

Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, or Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin, was a penguin species that lived 45?37 million years ago, during the Late Eocene and the earliest part of the Oligocene according to evaluationary theory....
). The oldest well-described giant penguin, the 5-foot-tall Icadyptes salasi
Icadyptes salasi

Icadyptes salasi was a giant penguin species from the late Eocene period, in the tropics of South America. "Ica" for the Ica Region where it was found, "dyptes" from the Greek word for diver, and "salasi" for Rodolfo Salas, a noted Peruvian paleontologist....
, actually occurred as far north as northern Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
 about 36 mya.

In any case, the gigantic penguins had disappeared by the end of the Paleogene
Paleogene

The Paleogene is a geologic period that began 65.5 ? 0.3 and ended 23.03 ? 0.05 million years ago and comprises the first part of the Cenozoic era....
, around 25 mya. Their decline and disappearance coincided with the spread of the Squalodontoidea and other primitive, fish-eating toothed whale
Toothed whale

The toothed whales form a suborder of the cetaceans, including sperm whales, beaked whales, orca, dolphins, and others. As the name suggests, the suborder is characterized by having teeth, rather than baleen as do animals in the other suborder of cetaceans, Mysticeti....
s, which certainly competed with them for food, and were ultimately more successful. A new lineage, the Paraptenodytes
Paraptenodytes

Paraptenodytes is an extinct genus of penguins which contains two or three species sized between a Magellanic Penguin and a small Emperor Penguin ....
 which includes smaller but decidedly stout-legged forms, had already arisen in southernmost South America by that time. The early Neogene
Neogene

The Neogene is a Geologic time scale#Terminology starting 23.03 ? 0.05 million years ago and lasting either until today or ending 2.588 million years ago with the beginning of the Quaternary....
 saw the emergence of yet another morphotype in the same area, the similarly-sized but more gracile Palaeospheniscinae, as well as the radiation which gave rise to the penguin biodiversity
Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems....
 of our time.

Origin and systematics of modern penguins
Modern penguins consititute two undisputed clade
Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
s and another two more basal genera with more ambiguous relationships. The origin of the Spheniscinae lies probably in the latest Paleogene, and geographically it must have been much the same as the general area in which the order evolved: the oceans between the Australia-New Zealand region and the Antarctic. Presumedly diverging from other penguins around 40 mya, it seems that the Spheniscinae were for quite some time limited to their ancestral area, as the well-researched deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It extends from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands....
 and Patagonia
Patagonia

Patagonia is a geographic region containing the southernmost portion of South America. Located in Argentina and Chile, it comprises the Andes mountains to the west and south, and plateaux and low plains to the east....
 have not yielded Paleogene fossils of the subfamily. Also, the earliest spheniscine lineages are those with the most southern distribution.

The genus Aptenodytes
Aptenodytes

The genus Aptenodytes contains two extant species of penguins collectively known as "the great penguins"....
 appears to be the basalmost divergence among living penguins; they have bright yellow-orange neck, breast, and bill patches; incubate by placing their eggs on their feet, and when they hatch the chicks are almost naked. This genus has a distribution centered on the Antarctic coasts and barely extends to some subantarctic islands today.

Pygoscelis
Pygoscelis

The genus Pygoscelis contains three living species of penguins collectively known as "The Brush-Tailed Penguins". Their appearance - black above, white below - is that of what most people think of when they think of penguins....
 contains species with a fairly simple black-and-white head pattern; their distribution is intermediate, centered on Antarctic coasts but extending somewhat northwards from there. In external morphology
Morphology (biology)

The term morphology in biology refers to form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs....
, these apparently still resemble the common ancestor of the Spheniscinae, as Aptenodytes autapomorphies are in most cases fairly pronounced adaptations related to that genus' extreme habitat
Habitat

The term habitat has a number of meanings:* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows** Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play...
 conditions. As the former genus,
Pygoscelis seems to have diverged during the Bartonian, but the range expansion and radiation which led to the present-day diversity probably did not occur until much later; around the Burdigalian
Burdigalian

Burdigalian is a age of the early Miocene epoch . It spans the time between 20.43 ? 0.05 annum and 15.97 ? 0.05 Ma . It is named after Burdigala, the original name for Bordeaux, France....
 stage of the Early Miocene
Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
, roughly 20–15 mya.

The genera
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 
Spheniscus
Spheniscus

The banded penguins are the penguins of the Spheniscus genus. There are four living species of penguins known as banded penguins, and all have similar coloration....
and Eudyptula
Eudyptula

The genus Eudyptula contains two species of penguin. It is found in southern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the Chatham Islands.Eudyptula minor is commonly known as the Little Penguin, Little Blue Penguin, or Fairy Penguin....
contain species with a mostly subantarctic distribution centered on South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
; some, however, range quite far northwards. They all lack carotenoid
Carotenoid

Carotenoids are organic compound pigments that are naturally occurring in chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthesis organisms like algae, some types of fungus and some bacterium....
 coloration, and the former genus has a conspicuous banded head pattern; they are unique among living penguins by nesting in burrows. This group probably radiated eastwards with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
Antarctic Circumpolar Current

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is an ocean current that flows from west to east around Antarctica. An alternate name for the ACC is the West Wind Drift....
 out of the ancestral range of modern penguins throughout the Chattian
Chattian

The Chattian is the second and final of two faunal stage of the Oligocene epoch . It spans the time between 28.4 ? 0.1 annum and 23.03 ? 0.05 Ma ....
 (Late Oligocene), starting approximately 28 mya. While the two genera separated during this time, the present-day diversity is the result of a Pliocene
Pliocene

The Pliocene epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 1.806 million years before present.The Pliocene is the second epoch of the Neogene period in the Cenozoic era....
 radiation, taking place some 4–2 mya.

The
MegadyptesEudyptes clade occurs at similar latitude
Latitude

Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps ....
s (though not as far north as the Galapagos Penguin
Galápagos Penguin

The Gal?pagos Penguin is a penguin endemic to the Gal?pagos Islands. It is the only penguin to live on the equator and can survive due to the cool temperatures resulting from the Humboldt Current and cool waters from great depths brought up by the Cromwell Current....
), has its highest diversity in the New Zealand region, and represent a westward dispersal. They are characterized by hairy yellow ornamental head feathers; their bills are at least partly red. These two genera diverged apparently in the Middle Miocene (Langhian
Langhian

Langhian is the older International Commission on Stratigraphy age of the Middle Miocene epoch . It spans the time between 15.97 ? 0.05 annum and 13.65 ? 0.05 Ma ....
, roughly 15–14 mya), but again, the living species of
Eudyptes are the product of a later radiation, stretching from about the late Tortonian
Tortonian

Tortonian is a age of the late Miocene epoch that spans the time between 11.608 ? 0.005 annum and 7.246 ? 0.005 Ma ....
 (Late Miocene, 8 mya) to the end of the Pliocene.

The geographical and temporal pattern or spheniscine evolution corresponds closely to two episodes of global cooling
Global cooling

Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth's surface and atmosphere along with a posited commencement of glaciation....
 documented in the paleoclimatic record
Paleoclimatology

Paleoclimatology is the study of climate change taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth. It uses records from ice sheets, tree rings, sediment, and rock s to determine the past state of the climate system on Earth....
. The emergence of the subantarctic lineage at the end of the Bartonian corresponds with the onset of the slow period of cooling that eventually led to the ice age
Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....
s some 35 million years later. With habitat on the Antarctic coasts declining, by the Priabonian more hospitable conditions for most penguins existed in the subantarctic regions rather than in Antarctica itself. Notably, the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current also started as a continuous circumpolar flow only around 30 mya, on the one hand forcing the Antarctic cooling, and on the other facilitating the eastward expansion of
Spheniscus
Spheniscus

The banded penguins are the penguins of the Spheniscus genus. There are four living species of penguins known as banded penguins, and all have similar coloration....
to South America and eventually beyond.

Later, an interspersed period of slight warming was ended by the Middle Miocene Climate Transition, a sharp drop in global average temperature from 14–12 mya, and similar abrupt cooling events followed at 8 mya and 4 mya; by the end of the Tortonian, the Antarctic ice sheet
Antarctic ice sheet

The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth. It covers about 98% of the Antarctica continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth....
 was already much like today in volume and extent. The emergence of most of today's subantarctic penguin species almost certainly was caused by this sequence of Neogene climate shifts.

Relationship to other bird orders
Penguin ancestry beyond
Waimanu
Waimanu

Waimanu was a genus of early penguin which lived soon after the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. This means that the radiation of the Neoaves that include most modern birds either took place before the extinction of the dinosaurs, or it must have been extremely rapid in geological terms....
remains unknown and not well-resolved by molecular or morphological analyses. The latter tend to be confounded by the strong adaptive autapomorphies of the Sphenisciformes; a sometimes perceived fairly close relationship between penguins and grebe
Grebe

Grebes are members of the Podicipediformes order , a widely distributed order of freshwater diving Avess, some of which visit the sea when Bird migration and in winter....
s is almost certainly an error based on both groups' strong diving adaptations, which are homoplasies. On the other hand, different DNA sequence
DNA sequence

A DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology....
 datasets do not agree in detail with each other either.

What seems clear is that penguins belong to a clade of Neoaves (living birds except paleognaths and fowl
Fowl

Fowl is a term for birds; fowl belong to one of two order , namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl . Studies of anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups were close evolutionary relatives; together, they form the fowl clade which is scientifically known as Galloanserae ....
) which comprises what is sometimes called "higher waterbirds" to distinguish them from the more ancient waterfowl
Waterfowl

Waterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, goose, and swans.They are strong swimmers with medium to large bodies....
. This group contains such birds as storks, rail
Rallidae

The rails, or Rallidae, are a large Cosmopolitan distribution family of small to medium-sized birds. The family exhibits considerable Biodiversity and the family also includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules....
s, and the seabird
Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adaptation to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behavior and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding ecological niche have resulted in similar adaptations....
s, with the possible exception of the Charadriiformes
Charadriiformes

Charadriiformes is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 350 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most Charadriiformes live near water and eat invertebrates or other small animals; however, some are pelagic , some occupy deserts and a few are found in thick forest....
.

Inside this group, penguin relationships are far less clear. Depending on the analysis and dataset, a close relationship to Ciconiiformes
Ciconiiformes

Traditionally, the order Ciconiiformes has included a variety of large, long-legged wading birds with large bills: storks, herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills, and several others....
 or to Procellariiformes
Procellariiformes

Procellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four family : the albatrosses, Procellariidae, storm-petrels and diving petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, they are often referred to collectively as the petrels, a term that has been applied to all Procellariiformes or more commo...
 has been suggested. Some think the penguin-like plotopterids
Plotopteridae

Plotopteridae is the name of an extinct family of flightless seabirds from the order Pelecaniformes. Related to the gannets and booby, they exhibited remarkable convergent evolution with the penguins, particularly with the now extinct giant penguins....
 (usually considered relatives of anhinga
Anhinga

The Anhinga , sometimes called Snakebird, Darter, American Darter, or Water Turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of North America and South America....
s and cormorant
Cormorant

The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of Genus is disputed....
s) may actually be a sister group of the penguins, and that penguins may have ultimately shared a common ancestor with the Pelecaniformes
Pelecaniformes

The Pelecaniformes are an order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. They are distinguished from other birds by the possession of feet with all four toes webbed ....
 and consequently would have to be included in that order, or that the plotopterids were not as close to other pelecaniforms as generally assumed, which would necessitate splitting the traditional Pelecaniformes in three.

The Auk
Auk

Auks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. They are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits....
 of the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator....
 is superficially similar to penguins: they are not related to the penguins at all, but considered by some to be a product of moderate convergent evolution
Convergent evolution

Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action....
.

Penguins and humans


Etymology

The word
Penguin is thought by some to derive from the Welsh
Welsh language

Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
 words
pen (head) and gwyn (white), applied to the Great Auk
Great Auk

The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Razorbill, is a bird that became Extinction in the mid-19th century. It was the only species in the genus Pinguinus, a group which included several flightless giant auks from the Atlantic, to survive until modern times....
 which had white spots in front of its eyes (although its head was black); or from an island off Newfoundland known as
Pengwyn, due to its having a large white rock. (In the latter case, the name may also have come from Breton
Breton language

The Breton language is a Celtic languages spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany in France....
.) This theory is supported by the fact that penguins look remarkably like Great Auks in general shape.

It is also possible that
penguin comes from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 
pinguis, “fat”. This is supported by the fact that the corresponding words in most other languages (e.g., French pingouin, German Pinguin) have i instead of e as the first vowel. However, a Welsh i is often sound-shifted to an e in the English language.

Another theory states that the word is an alteration of “pen-wing”, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both Great Auks and penguins, but there is no evidence to support this.

What may be a King Penguin but certainly is a member of the Spheniscidae appears on a 1599 map at the Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan

The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. The waterway is the most important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, but it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the inhospitable climate and the narrowness o...
 with the caption "Pinguyn". The map's features are labeled in Latin, such as
Fretum Magellanicum ("Strait of Magellan"). In addition, there is ample evidence that the Latin term anser magellanicus ("Goose of Magellan" or "Magellanic Goose") was the usual term for penguins in the scholarly literature of that time. If the English word was derived from Latin – e.g. avis pinguis ("fat bird") or pinguinus ("the fat one") – it must have originated considerably earlier than 1600.

In a final twist to the story, the term "Magellanic Goose" (today usually "Magellan Goose
Magellan Goose

The Magellan Goose or Upland Goose is a South American member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is in the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae....
") in our time has come to denote an actual anseriform
Anseriformes

The order Anseriformes contains about 150 living species of birds in three extant families: the Anhimidae , Anseranatidae , and the Anatidae, which includes over 140 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks, goose, and swans....
, namely a
Chloephaga sheldgoose.

The pronunciation of the word in English varies somewhat: as either "PEN-gwin" or "PENG-gwin".

Penguins in popular culture

Tux
Penguins are popular around the world, primarily for their unusually upright, waddling gait and (compared to other birds) lack of fear of humans. Their striking black-and-white plumage is often likened to a tuxedo
Black tie

Black tie is a dress code for semi-formal evening events, and is worn to many types of social functions. For a man, the major component is a jacket, known as a dinner jacket or tuxedo , which is usually black but is also seen in midnight blue....
 suit. Mistakenly, some artists and writers have penguins based at the North Pole
North Pole

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets the Earth's surface....
. This is incorrect, as there are almost no wild penguins in the northern hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator....
, except the small group on the northernmost of the Galápagos. The cartoon series
Chilly Willy
Chilly Willy

Chilly Willy is a cartoon character, a diminutive anthropomorphic penguin living in Fairbanks, Alaska, although the species is native only to the southern hemisphere....
helped perpetuate this myth, as the title penguin would interract with northern-hemisphere species such as polar bears and walruses.

Penguins have been the subject of many books and films such as
Happy Feet
Happy Feet

Happy Feet is an Cinema of Australia-produced 2006 computer animation comedy-drama musical film film, directed and co-written by George Miller ....
and Surf's Up
Surf's Up (film)

Surf's Up is a United States Academy Award-nominated Computer animation mockumentary film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Columbia Pictures....
, both CGI
CGI

CGI may mean:* Computer-generated imagery, application of computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, etc* Common Gateway Interface, a protocol for calling external software via a web server to deliver dynamic content....
 films;
March of the Penguins, a documentary based on the migration process of Emperors; and a parody entitled Farce of the Penguins
Farce of the Penguins

Farce of the Penguins is a 2007 in film Direct-to-video parody film of the 2005 in film documentary film March of the Penguins. The motion picture features Samuel L....
. Penguins have also found their way into a number of cartoons and television dramas; perhaps the most notable of these is Pingu
Pingu

Pingu is a Switzerland clay animation television series created by Otmar Gutman, about a family of penguins who live at the South Pole. The main character is their son and title character, Pingu....
, created by Silvio Mazzola
Silvio Mazzola

Silvio Mazzola is a Switzerland Television writer of Italy ancestry. He is most notable for creating Pingu - the fictional Penguin on children's television who featured in his own television series totalling 104 episodes from 1986....
 in 1986 and covering more than 100 short episodes.

The tendency of penguins to form large groups feeds the stereotype that they all look exactly alike, a popular notion exploited by cartoonists such as Gary Larson
Gary Larson

Gary Larson is the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel comic strip which appeared in many newspapers for fourteen years until Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995....
.

Penguins featured regularly in the cartoons of UK cartoonist Steve Bell
Steve Bell (cartoonist)

Steve Bell is an England political cartoonist, whose work appears in The Guardian and other publications. He is known for his left-wing views and distinctive caricatures....
 in his strip in
The Guardian
The Guardian

Sorry, no overview for this topic
Newspaper, particularly during and following the Falklands War
Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands....
.

In the mid-2000s, penguins became one of the most publicized species of animals that form lasting homosexual couples
Homosexuality in animals

Homosexual behavior in animals refers to the documented evidence of homosexuality, bisexual and transgender behavior in non-human animals. Such behaviors include Sexual intercourse, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting....
. A children's book
Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve and is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes exclude young-adult fiction, comic books, or other genres....
,
And Tango Makes Three
And Tango Makes Three

And Tango Makes Three is a 2005 children's literature written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole. The book is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, two male Chinstrap Penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo who for six years formed a couple....
, was written about one such penguin family
Roy and Silo

Roy and Silo are Chinstrap Penguins who were a homosexual couple in New York City's Central Park Zoo.The pair were observed trying to hatch a rock as if it were an egg ....
 in the New York Zoo
New York Zoo

There are several New York Zoos* The Bronx Zoo, New York City's main zoo* The Buffalo Zoo is a zoo in Buffalo, New York* Central Park Zoo, in New York City...
.

Footnotes


Bibliography

Acosta Hospitaleche, Carolina (2004):
Los pingüinos (Aves, Sphenisciformes) fósiles de Patagonia. Sistemática, biogeografía y evolución. Doctoral thesis, Department of Natural Sciences and Museum, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. La Plata, Argentina.
  • Baker, Allan J.; Pereira, Sergio Luiz; Haddrath, Oliver P. & Edge, Kerri-Anne (2006): Multiple gene evidence for expansion of extant penguins out of Antarctica due to global cooling. Proc. R. Soc. B
    Proceedings of the Royal Society

    Proceedings of the Royal Society is the parent title of two scientific journals published by the Royal Society.Originally a single journal, "Proceedings" was split into two separate journals in 1905;...
     273: 11-17.
  • Banks, Jonathan C.; Mitchell, Anthony D.; Waas, Joseph R. & Paterson, Adrian M. (2002): An unexpected pattern of molecular divergence within the blue penguin (Eudyptula minor) complex. Notornis 49(1): 29–38.
  • Bertelli, Sara & Giannini, Norberto P. (2005): A phylogeny of extant penguins (Aves: Sphenisciformes) combining morphology and mitochondrial sequences. Cladistics 21(3): 209–239. (HTML abstract)
  • Clarke, Julia A.; Olivero, Eduardo B. & Puerta, Pablo (2003): Description of the earliest fossil penguin from South America and first Paleogene vertebrate locality of Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina. American Museum novitates 3423: 1-18.
  • Davis; Lloyd S. & Renner; M. (1995). Penguins . London: T & A D Poyser. ISBN 0-7136-6550-5
  • Fain, Matthew G. & Houde, Peter (2004): Parallel radiations in the primary clades of birds. Evolution
    Evolution (journal)

    Evolution, the International Journal of Organic Evolution, is a monthly scientific journal that publishes significant new results of empirical or theoretical investigations concerning facts, processes, mechanics, or concepts of evolutionary phenomena and events....
     58(11): 2558-2573.
  • Jadwiszczak, Piotr (2006): Eocene penguins of Seymour Island, Antarctica: taxonomy. Polish Polar Research 27(1), 3–62.
  • Jouventin, P; Aubin, T. & T Lengagne (1999) "Finding a parent in a king penguin colony: the acoustic system of individual recognition" Animal Behaviour 57: 1175–1183
  • Ksepka, Daniel T., Bertelli, Sara & Giannini, Norberto P. (2006): The phylogeny of the living and fossil Sphenisciformes (penguins). Cladistics 22(5): 412–441. (HTML abstract)
  • Marples, B. J. (1962): Observations on the history of penguins. In: Leeper, G. W. (ed.), The evolution of living organisms. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press: 408-416.
  • Mayr, G. (2005): Tertiary plotopterids (Aves, Plotopteridae) and a novel hypothesis on the phylogenetic relationships of penguins (Spheniscidae). Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 43(1): 61-71.
  • Sivak, J.; Howland, H. & McGill-Harelstad, P. (1987) "Vision of the Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) in Air and Water" Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 229(1257): 467-472
  • Slack, Kerryn E.; Jones, Craig M.; Ando, Tatsuro; Harrison G. L. "Abby"; Fordyce R. Ewan; Arnason, Ulfur & Penny, David (2006): Early Penguin Fossils, plus Mitochondrial Genomes, Calibrate Avian Evolution. Molecular Biology and Evolution 23(6): 1144-1155.
  • Wever, E.; Herman, P.; Simmons, J. & Hertzler D (1969) "Hearing in the Blackfooted Penguin, Spheniscus demersus, as Represented by the Cochlear Potentials" PNAS 63(3): 676-680
  • Williams; Tony D. (1995). The Penguins - Spheniscidae . Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Oxford University Press

    Oxford University Press is a publisher and a department of the University of Oxford in England. It is the largest university press in the world, being larger than all the American university presses combined with Cambridge University Press....
    . ISBN 0-19-854667-X


External links

  • on the Internet Bird Collection
  • in Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
    New Zealand

    New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....