Palaeeudyptes antarcticus
Palaeeudyptes antarcticus Temporal range:
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Huxley’s original illustration of the fossil of an ankle bone from Palaeeudyptes antarcticus described in 1859. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Sphenisciformes |
Family: | Spheniscidae |
Genus: | †Palaeeudyptes |
Species: | †P. antarcticus
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Binomial name | |
†Palaeeudyptes antarcticus Huxley, 1859
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Synonyms | |
Palaeeudyptes antarctica (lapsus) Lowe, 1933 |
Palaeeudyptes antarcticus, also referred to as the narrow-flippered penguin, is the
P. antarcticus was the first fossil penguin to become known to science. It was described from a single, slightly damaged,
(Tambussi et al., 2006), but given the considerable distances in age and range involved, it is not completely certain that the bones belong to a single species.This remains the only fossil unequivocally assigned to this species, but numerous other bones have been found that may belong to it too. These fossils were once uncritically considered as being from P. antarcticus, merely because other large penguins were not known at that time, but have not been subject to scientific review according to modern standards. While some of these bones are now known to belong to other species, a large number are not unequivocally assignable to either P. antarcticus or P. marplesi, being intermediate in size (Simpson, 1971), lending support to the theory that these taxa were in reality a single species.
References
- Huxley, Thomas Henry (1859): "On a Fossil Bird and a Fossil Cetacean from New Zealand". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 15: 670–677.
- Simpson, George Gaylord (1946): "Fossil Penguins". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 87: 7-99. PDF fulltext
- Simpson, George Gaylord (1971): "A Review of the Pre-Pleistocene Penguins of New Zealand". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 144: 319–378. PDF fulltext
- Tambussi, C. P.; Acosta Hospitaleche, C. I.; Reguero, M. A. & Marenssi, S. A. (2006): "Late Eocene Penguins from West Antarctica: Systematics and Biostratigraphy". Geological Society, London, Special Publication 258: 145–161.