''Pachydyptes'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

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 (37 to 34

MYA Mya may refer to: Brands and product names * Mya (program), an intelligent personal assistant created by Motorola * Mya (TV channel), an Italian Television channel * Midwest Young Artists, a comprehensive youth music program Codes * Burmese ...

) rocks in the area of

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

, 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 ''Anthropornis'' is a genus of giant penguin that lived 45-33 million years ago, during the Late Eocene and the earliest part of the Oligocene.Myrcha, A., Jadwiszczak, P., Tambussi, C.P., Noriega, J.I., Gazdzicki, A., Tatur, A., and Valle, R.A ...

'' 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 ''Icadyptes'' is an extinct genus of giant penguins from the Late Eocene tropics of South America. Etymology The genus name is a combination of "''Ica''" for the Peruvian region where the type species was found and "dyptes" from the Greek w ...

'', 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 Prehistoric bird genera Extinct monotypic bird genera