Everything about Palaeeudyptes totally explained
Palaeeudyptes is an
extinct genus of large
penguins, currently containing four accepted
species. They were probably larger than almost all living penguins, with the smaller species being about the size of an
Emperor Penguin and the largest ones having stood about 1.5
meters tall.
Of the four species, two (
P. gunnari and
P. klekowskii) are known from numerous remains found in Middle or Late
Eocene strata (34 to 50
MYA) of the
La Meseta Formation on
Seymour Island,
Antarctica.
P. antarcticus, the first
fossil penguin described, is only really known from a single incomplete
tarsometatarsus found in the Late
Oligocene Otekaike Limestone (23 to 28, possibly up to 34
MYA) at
Kakanui,
New Zealand, but numerous other bones have been tentatively assigned to the species. The other described New Zealand species,
P. marplesi, is known from parts of a skeleton, mainly leg bones, from the Middle or Late
Eocene Burnside Mudstone (34 to 40
MYA) at
Burnside, Dunedin. To this species also a number of additional remains have been tentatively assigned. The problem with the indeterminate New Zealand specimens is that they at least in part are intermediate in size between the two species (Simpson, 1971). It may be that
P. marplesi simply evolved into the smaller
P. antarcticus. Bones unassignable to species also were found on Seymour Island, but in these cases they seem to be from juvenile individuals or are simply too damaged to be of diagnostic value (Jadwiszczak, 2006).
In addition, an incomplete right
tibiotarsus (
South Australian Museum P10862) and one left
humerus (South Australian Museum P7158) and assignable to this genus were found in the Late Eocene
Blanche Point Marls at
Witton Bluff near
Adelaide,
Australia (Simpson, 1946, 1971).
The supposed genus
Wimanornis, based on two Seymour Island humeri, is apparently a
synonym of
P. gunnari (Jadwiszcak, 2006).
The genus is the namesake for the subfamily of primitive penguins, Palaeeudyptinae. Altogether, their
osteological characteristics seem to have been somewhat less advanced that those of the slightly smaller
Archaeospheniscus and about on par with the gigantic
Anthropornis. The exact nature of the relationship of the Palaeeudyptinae to modern penguins is unknown.
Further Information
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