''Palaeeudyptes gunnari'' is an extinct

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 the

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 ...

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Palaeeudyptes''. It was a bit smaller than its congener ''

Palaeeudyptes antarcticus ''Palaeeudyptes antarcticus'', also referred to as the narrow-flippered penguin, is the type species of the extinct penguin genus ''Palaeeudyptes''. It was a huge species, albeit probably with a large size variation. Although the size range can ...

'' of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, standing between 110 and 125 cm high, approximately the size of the

emperor penguin The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing from . Feathers of th ...

. It is known from dozens of

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 from Middle or Late

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

strata (34-50 MYA) of the

La Meseta Formation The La Meseta Formation is a sedimentary sequence deposited during the Eocene. The formation is found on Seymour Island, Antarctica. Description La Meseta Formation lies unconformably on the Cretaceous Lopez de Bertodano Formation. It is an app ...

Seymour Island Seymour Island or Marambio 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 the closest part of Antarctica to South America. It lies within the section of the isla ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. Initially, it was described as a separate genus, ''Eosphaeniscus''. However, this was based on a single weathered and broken

tarsometatarsus The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) and meta ...

. Better material recovered later showed that the species belongs into the present genus. '' Wimanornis'' is probably a synonym of this species (Jadwiszcak, 2006).

References

* * Myrcha, Andrzej; Jadwiszczak, Piotr; Tambussi, Claudia P.; Noriega, Jorge I.; Gaździcki, Andrzej; Tatur, Andrzej & Del Valle, Rodolfo A. (2002): Taxonomic revision of Eocene Antarctic penguins based on tarsometatarsal morphology. ''Polish Polar Research'' 23(1): 5–46
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* Simpson, George Gaylord (1946): Fossil penguins. ''Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.'' 87: 7-99
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* Wiman, Carl (1905): Vorläufige Mitteilung über die alttertiären Vertebraten der Seymourinsel. ''Bulletin of the Geological Institute of Uppsala'' 6: 247–253. rticle in German {{Taxonbar, from=Q3889301 gunnari Eocene birds Extinct penguins Cenozoic Antarctica Cenozoic animals of Oceania Extinct animals of Antarctica Extinct birds of New Zealand Cenozoic animals of Antarctica Taxa named by Carl Wiman Fossil taxa described in 1905