''Anthropornis'' is a
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 ...
of
giant penguin that lived 45-33 million years ago, during the
Late Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', ...
and the earliest part of the
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but t ...
.
[Myrcha, A., Jadwiszczak, P., Tambussi, C.P., Noriega, J.I., Gazdzicki, A., Tatur, A., and Valle, R.A. (2002). "Taxonomic Revision of Eocene Antarctic Penguins Based on Tarsometatarsal Morphology". ''Polish Polar Research'', 23(1): 5-46]
Description
''Anthropornis'' reached in length from the tip of the beak to the tip of the tail, and in weight. There is also an estimate that one remain of ''Anthropornis'' can reach that body length of and in weight.
Fossils of it have been found in the
La Meseta Formation on
Seymour Island off the coast of
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 cont ...
and in
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 coun ...
. By comparison, the largest modern penguin species, 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 t ...
, is just long.
The type species, ''Anthropornis nordenskjoldi'', had a bent joint in the wing, probably a
vestigial
Vestigiality is the retention, during the process of evolution, of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on co ...
trait from its flying ancestors.
References
Prehistoric bird genera
Eocene birds
Oligocene birds
Extinct penguins
Priabonian genus first appearances
Rupelian genus extinctions
Prehistoric birds of Antarctica
Paleogene Antarctica
Fossils of Antarctica
Fossil taxa described in 1905
Fossils of New Zealand
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