genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
''Aptenodytes'' contains two extant
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
penguins
Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...
collectively known as "the great penguins".
Etymology
The name "Aptenodytes" is a composite of
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
elements, "ἀ-πτηνο-δύτης" (without-wings-diver).
Taxonomy
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King penguin
The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' ...
Ridgen's penguin
''Aptenodytes ridgeni'', also referred to as Ridgen's penguin, is an extinct species of penguin from the Pliocene of New Zealand. It was intermediate in size between its living congeners, standing an estimated 90–100 cm tall. The remains ...
(''Aptenodytes ridgeni'') is an extinct species known from
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
bones of Early or Late
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58molecular data have shown the genus ''Aptenodytes'' to be basal to all other living penguins, that is, the genus split off from a branch which led to all other species. DNA evidence suggests this split occurred around 40 million years ago. This had been foreshadowed by an attempt to classify penguins by their behavior, which also predicted the genus' basal nature.