''Palaeospheniscus'' 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 ...

penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

s belonging to the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Palaeospheniscinae. These

s are apparently not closely related to the modern genus ''

Spheniscus The banded penguins are penguins that belong to the genus ''Spheniscus''. There are four living species, all with similar banded plumage-patterns. They are sometimes also known as "jack-ass penguins" due to their loud locator-calls sounding sim ...

''.

Description

The species of ''Palaeospheniscus'' were medium-sized to largish penguins, ranging from ''P. gracilis'' with an estimated maximal length of 55 cm to ''P. wimani'', which reached up to 73 cm.

Species

This genus contains the following three

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

:Paleobiology Database
/ref> *'' Palaeospheniscus patagonicus'' (

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

) *'' Palaeospheniscus bergi'' *'' Palaeospheniscus biloculatus'' The following other species are disputed: *'' Palaeospheniscus wimani'' (disputed) *'' Palaeospheniscus gracilis'' (disputed) They are all (except ''P. bergi'', which is somewhat enigmatic) known from one or two handful of bones. Most of the specimens were found in Santa Cruz and

Chubut Province Chubut ( from Tehuelche language, Tehuelche 'transparent'; ) is a provinces of Argentina, province in southern Argentina, situated between the 42nd parallel south (the border with Río Negro Province), the 46th parallel south (bordering Santa ...

s of

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. The fossils were recovered from the Patagonian Molasse Formation, and are probably Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

to Late Miocene or possibly Early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Early Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two age (geology), ages or the lower of two stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Oligocene epoch (geology), Epoch/series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded b ...

, but this is now thought to be erroneous.

Distribution

Specimen belonging to this genus have been found in the Pliocene of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, in Miocene to Pliocene of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, in Miocene of

and

and in Oligocene to Miocene of

and

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

References

* Moreno, Francisco & Mercerat, A. (1891): Catálogo de los pájaros fósiles de la República Argentina conservados en el Museo de La Plata. ''Anales del Museo de La Plata'' 1: 7-71, 21 plates. * Simpson, George Gaylord (1972): Conspectus of Patagonian fossil penguins. ''American Museum Novitates'' 2488: 1-37
PDF fulltext
* Stucchi, Marcelo; Urbina, Mario & Giraldo, Alfredo (2003): Una nueva especie de Spheniscidae del Mioceno Tardío de la Formación Pisco, Perú. ''Bulletin Institut Français d'Études Andines'' 32(2): 361–375
PDF fulltext

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3889329 Pliocene birds of South America Bird genera Miocene birds of South America Extinct penguins Fossil taxa described in 1891 Pliocene Africa Miocene Africa Miocene Chile Pliocene Chile Miocene Argentina Oligocene Argentina Oligocene Peru