''Pachydyptes'' (''Pachydyptes ponderosus''), also known as the New Zealand giant penguin is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of penguin. This taxon is known from a few bones from Late

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

(37 to 34 MYA) rocks in the area of

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

, which were found in two clades near a base of a tree (Ksepka et al., 2006). G.G. Simpson, an evolutionary biologist, estimated a height of 140 to 160 cm (about 5 ft) and a weight of around 80 to possibly over 100 kg (Stonehouse, 1975). it was the second-tallest penguin ever, surpassed only by '' Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi'' in height, but probably not in weight. This was because of the clade's evolutionary history, where many early penguins were typically found larger in size (Ksepka et al., 2006). G.G. Simpson had also claimed from the fossil records that the Pachydyptes along with many other early penguin species, descended from flying ancestors (Stonehouse, 1975). ''Pachydyptes'' was slightly larger than '' Icadyptes salasi'', the best-identified of the giant penguins.

References

* Ksepka, D., Bertelli, S., & Giannini, N. (2006, October). The phylogeny of the living and fossil Sphenisciformes (penguins). ''Cladistics'', 22(5), 412–441. Web of Science. *Oliver, Walter R. B. (1930). enus ''Pachydyptes'' ''In: New Zealand birds'', 85–86. Wellington: Fine Arts. *Stonehouse, B. (1975). The Biology of Penguins. In Science (Vol. 189, pp. 448–452).

External links

* Wikinews: Students find fossilised giant penguin
Geocities Geocities NatureLand 5218
Information and good reconstruction {{Taxonbar, from=Q143743 Eocene birds Extinct birds of New Zealand Fossil taxa described in 1930 Palaeeudyptinae Extinct penguins Fossils of New Zealand Monotypic prehistoric bird genera