''Pachydyptes'' is an extinct

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 penguin. It contains the single species ''Pachydyptes ponderosus'', the New Zealand giant penguin. This taxon is known from a few bones from 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'', " ...

(37 to 34 MYA) rocks in the area of Otago, 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'', 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