Penguin

Penguins Fossil range: Paleocene-Recent
Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis papua
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Infraclass: Neognathae Order: Sphenisciformes (or Ciconiiformes) Family: Spheniscidae Bonaparte, 1831
Modern genera
Aptenodytes Eudyptes Eudyptula Megadyptes Pygoscelis Spheniscus For prehistoric genera, see Systematics

Penguin is the common name for any of the aquatic, gregarious, flightless birds comprising the family Spheniscidae, living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, and characterized by a stout body, wings in the form of flippers, webbed feet on short legs that are placed far posterior on the body, and countershaded dark and white plumage. While highly adapted for life in the water, being excellent swimmers and divers, penguins also spend time on land, where they breed. There are about 17 extant species of penguins, placed in six genera in the subfamily Spheniscinae.

All penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere, principally in cool regions, and a number breed in Antarctica and Sub-Antarctic islands. However, there also are several species that are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos penguin, lives near the equator. Penguins are found off the coasts of South America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Most penguins feed on krill, fish, cuttlefish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater.

monogamous keeping same pair from previous year

Penguins seem to have no special fear of humans and have approached groups of explorers without hesitation. This is probably on account of there being no land predators in Antarctica or the nearby offshore islands that prey on or attack penguins. Instead, penguins are at risk at sea from predators such as the leopard seal and killer whale. Typically, penguins do not approach closer than about 3 meters (10 feet) at which point they become nervous. This is also the distance that Antarctic tourists are told to keep from penguins (tourists are not supposed to approach closer than 3 meters, but are not expected to withdraw if the penguins come closer).

Penguin biology

Anatomy

Orcas swim by an iceberg with Adélie penguins in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. The Drygalski ice tongue is visible in the background.

Penguins have stout bodies, with a characteristic upright posture and wings that are stiff, modified into flippers, and not folded against the body. The legs are short, placed far posterior on the body, and with webbed feet that have four forward pointing toes. Their bills are long, with impervious nares, and often laterally compressed. The feathers are small. They have 15 cervical vertebrae (Howard 2003).

The largest living species is the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 meters (3 feet 7 inches) tall and weigh 35 kilograms (75 pounds) or more. The smallest penguin species is the little blue penguin (also known as the fairy penguin), which stands around 40 centimeters tall (16 inches) and weighs 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds). Among extant penguins larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates (see also Bergmann's Rule). Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as tall or as heavy as an adult human (see below for more). These were not restricted to Antarctic regions; on the contrary, Sub-Antarctic regions harbored high diversity, and at least one giant penguin occurred in a region not quite 2,000 kilometers south of the Equator 35 million years ago, in a climate decidedly warmer than today.

All penguins are countershaded for camouflage—that is, they have a white underside and a dark (mostly black) upperside. A predator looking up from below (such as an orca or a leopard seal) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface. The dark plumage on their backs camouflages them from aquatic predators from above.

Penguins are superbly adapted to an aquatic life. Their wings, in the form of flippers, are useless for flight in the air but allow penguins in water to be astonishingly agile. Within the smooth plumage, a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. The air layer also helps insulate the birds in cold waters.

Penguins can drink salt water because their supraorbital gland filters excess salt from the bloodstream. The salt is excreted in a concentrated fluid from the nasal passages. Their eyes are adapted for underwater vision, and are their primary means of locating prey and avoiding predators; in air it has been suggested that they are nearsighted, although research has not supported this hypothesis.

Penguins have a thick layer of insulating feathers that serve to keep them warm in water (heat loss in water is much greater than in air). The Emperor penguin, endemic to Antarctica, has the largest body mass of all penguins, which further reduces relative surface area and heat loss. They also are able to control blood flow to their extremities, reducing the amount of blood that gets cold, but still keeping the extremities from freezing. In the extreme cold of the Antarctic winter, the females are at sea fishing for food, leaving the males to brave the weather by themselves. They often huddle together to keep warm and rotate positions to make sure that each penguin gets a turn in the center of the heat pack.

Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 kilometers per hour (3.7-7.5 mph), though there are reports of velocities of 27 kilometers per hour (17 mph) (which are more realistic in the case of startled flight). The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes. Larger penguins can dive deep in case of need. Dives of the large emperor penguin have been recorded that reach a depth of 565 meters (1,870 feet) and last up to 22 minutes.

On land, penguins use their tails and wings to maintain balance for their upright stance. Penguins either waddle on their feet or slide on their bellies across the snow, a movement called "tobogganing," which conserves energy while allowing them to move quickly. They also jump with both feet together if they want to move more quickly or cross steep or rocky terrain.

Penguins have an average sense of hearing for birds (Wever et al. 1969); this is used by parents and chicks to locate one another in crowded colonies (Jouventin et al. 1999).

Breeding

File:Pygoscelis antarctica trying to get to iceberg.wmv.OGG

Chinstrap Penguins in Antarctica

Penguins form monogamous pairs for a breeding season, though the rate the same pair recouples varies drastically. Most penguins lay two eggs in a clutch, though the two largest species, the Emperor and the King Penguins, lay only one. With the exception of the Emperor Penguin in all penguins share the incubation duties. These incubation shifts can last days and even weeks as one member of the pair feeds at sea.

Penguin eggs are smaller than any other bird species when compared proportionally to the weight of the parent birds; at 52 grams, the Little Penguin egg is 4.7% of its mothers' weight, and the 450-gram Emperor Penguin egg is 2.3%. The relatively thick shell forms between 10 and 16% of the weight of a penguin egg, presumably to minimise risk of breakage in an adverse nesting environment. The yolk, too, is large, and comprises 22–31% of the egg. Some yolk often remains when a chick is born, and is thought to help sustain it if parents are delayed in returning with food.

When mothers lose a chick, they sometimes attempt to "steal" another mother's chick, usually unsuccessfully as other females in the vicinity assist the defending mother in keeping her chick. In some species, such as Emperor Penguins, young penguins assemble in large groups called crèches.

Isabelline Adélie penguin on Gourdin Island, December 2002

Range

Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin actually live so far south. At least 10 species live in the temperate zone; one, the Galápagos Penguin, lives as far north as the Galápagos Islands.

Major populations of penguins are found in: Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand.

Isabelline penguins

Perhaps one in 50,000 penguins (of most species) are born with brown rather than black plumage. These are called Isabelline penguins, possibly in reference to the legend that the archduchess Isabella of Austria vowed not to change her undergarments until her husband united the northern and southern Low Countries by taking the city of Ostend – which took three years to accomplish. Isabellinism is different from albinism, though the faded color of the plumage calls albinism to mind. Isabelline penguins tend to live shorter lives than normal penguins, as they are not well-camouflaged against the deep, and are often passed over as mates.

Systematics and evolution

Spheniscidae is placed either in the ilies in the order Ciconiiformes or as the sole extant family in the order Sphenisciformes.

http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=174442 Sphenisciformes Taxonomic Serial No.: 174442 1999

http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=174770 Ciconiiformes Taxonomic Serial No.: 174770

Note:"Some taxonomists have enlarged the Ciconiiformes to include the Sphenisciformes penguins, as in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy (a radical new approach to taxonomy, based on DNA hybridization studies)."

Sibley and Ahlquist's landmark DNA-DNA hybridisation studies (see Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy) led to them placing the families traditionally contained within the Pelecaniformes together with the grebes, cormorants, ibises and spoonbills, New World vultures, storks, penguins, albatrosses, petrels, and loons together as a sub-group within a greatly expanded order Ciconiiformes, a radical move which by now has been all but rejected: their "Ciconiiformes" merely assembled all early advanced land- and seabirds for which their research technique delivered insufficient phylogenetic resolution.

Following the development of research techniques in molecular biology in the late 20th century, in particular methods for studying DNA-DNA hybridisation, a great deal of new information has surfaced, much of it suggesting that many birds, although looking very different from one another, are in fact more closely related than was previously thought. Accordingly, the radical and influential Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy greatly enlarged the Ciconiiformes, adding many more families, including most of those usually regarded as belonging to the Sphenisciformes (penguins), Gaviiformes (divers), Podicipediformes (grebes), Procellariiformes (tubenosed seabirds), Charadriiformes, (waders, gulls, terns and auks), Pelecaniformes (pelicans, cormorants, gannets and allies), and the Falconiformes (diurnal birds of prey).

Recent research strongly suggests that the similarities between the Pelecaniformes as traditionally defined are the result of convergent evolution rather than common descent, and that the group is paraphyletic.

Some recent sources apply the phylogenetic taxon Spheniscidae to what here is referred to as Spheniscinae. Furthermore, they restrict the phylogenetic taxon Sphenisciformes to flightless taxa, and establish the phylogenetic taxon Pansphenisciformes as equivalent to the Linnean taxon Sphenisciformes, i.e., including any flying basal "proto-penguins" to be discovered eventually. Given that neither the relationships of the penguin subfamilies to each other nor the placement of the penguins in the avian phylogeny is presently resolved, this seems spurious and in any case is confusing; the established Linnean system is thus followed here.

Living species and recent extinctions

Emperor Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri), the largest living species.

Adelie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) feeding young. Like its relatives, a neatly bi-coloured species with a head marking.

Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) guarding nest burrow. The closed neck collar denotes this species.

Closeup of Southern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome).

The number of extant penguin species is debated. Depending on which authority is followed, penguin biodiversity varies between 17 and 20 living species, all in the subfamily Spheniscinae. Some sources consider the White-flippered Penguin a separate Eudyptula species, while others treat it as a subspecies of the Little Penguin; the actual situation seems to be more complicated. Similarly, it is still unclear whether the Royal Penguin is merely a color morph of the Macaroni penguin. Also eligible to be a separate species is the Northern population of Rockhopper penguins.

Updated after Marples (1962), Acosta Hospitaleche (2004), and Ksepka et al. (2006).

Subfamily Spheniscinae – Modern penguins

• Aptenodytes – Great penguins
  • King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus
  • Emperor Penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri
• Pygoscelis – Brush-tailed penguins
  • Adelie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae
  • Chinstrap Penguin, Pygoscelis antarctica
  • Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis papua
• Eudyptula – Little penguins
  • Little Blue Penguin, Eudyptula minor
  • Northern Little Penguin, Eudyptula albosignata (provisional)
• Spheniscus – Banded penguins
  • Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus
  • Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus humboldti
  • Galapagos Penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus
  • African Penguin, Spheniscus demersus
• Megadyptes
  • Yellow-eyed Penguin, Megadyptes antipodes
  • Waitaha Penguin, Megadyptes waitaha (extinct)
• Eudyptes – Crested penguins
  • Fiordland Penguin, Eudyptes pachyrynchus
  • Snares Penguin, Eudyptes robustus
  • Erect-crested Penguin, Eudyptes sclateri
  • Southern Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome
  • Northern Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes moseleyi
  • Royal Penguin, Eudyptes schlegeli (disputed)
  • Macaroni Penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus
  • Chatham Islands Penguin, Eudyptes sp. (extinct)

Fossil genera

Order Sphenisciformes

• Basal and unresolved taxa (all fossil)
  • Waimanu – basal (Middle-Late Paleocene)
  • Perudyptes (Middle Eocene of Atacama Desert, Peru) – basal?
  • Spheniscidae gen. et sp. indet. CADIC P 21 (Leticia Middle Eocene of Punta Torcida, Argentina: Clarke et al. 2003)
  • Delphinornis (Middle/Late Eocene? – Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – Palaeeudyptinae, basal, new subfamily 1?
  • Archaeospheniscus (Middle/Late Eocene – Late Oligocene) – Palaeeudyptinae? New subfamily 2?
  • Marambiornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – Palaeeudyptinae, basal, new subfamily 1?
  • Mesetaornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – Palaeeudyptinae, basal, new subfamily 1?
  • Tonniornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica)
  • Wimanornis (Late Eocene –? Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica)
  • Duntroonornis (Late Oligocene of Otago, New Zealand) – possibly Spheniscinae
  • Korora (Late Oligocene of S Canterbury, New Zealand)
  • Platydyptes (Late Oligocene of New Zealand) – possibly not monophyletic; Palaeeudyptinae, Paraptenodytinae or new subfamily?
  • Spheniscus gen. et sp. indet (Late Oligocene/Early Miocene of Hakataramea, New Zealand)
  • Madrynornis (Puerto Madryn Late Miocene of Argentina) – possibly Spheniscinae
  • Pseudaptenodytes (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene)
  • Dege (Early Pliocene of South Africa) – possibly Spheniscinae
  • Marplesornis (Early Pliocene) – possibly Spheniscinae
  • Nucleornis (Early Pliocene of Duinfontain, South Africa) – possibly Spheniscinae
  • Inguza (Late Pliocene) – probably Spheniscinae; formerly Spheniscus predemersus

A damaged tarsometatarsus of the prehistoric Narrow-flippered Penguin (Palaeeudyptes antarcticus).

• Family Spheniscidae
  • Subfamily Palaeeudyptinae – Giant penguins (fossil)
    • Crossvallia (Cross Valley Late Paleocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – tentatively assigned to this subfamily
    • Anthropornis (Middle Eocene? – Early Oligocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica) – tentatively assigned to this subfamily
      • Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin, Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi
    • Icadyptes (Late Eocene of Atacama Desert, Peru)
    • Palaeeudyptes (Middle/Late Eocene – Late Oligocene) – polyphyletic; some belong in other subfamilies
    • Pachydyptes (Late Eocene)
    • Anthropodyptes (Middle Miocene) – tentatively assigned to this subfamily
  • Subfamily Paraptenodytinae – Stout-footed penguins (fossil)
    • Arthrodytes (San Julian Late Eocene/Early Oligocene – Patagonia Early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina)
    • Paraptenodytes (Early – Late Miocene/Early Pliocene)
  • Subfamily Palaeospheniscinae – Slender-footed penguins (fossil)
    • Eretiscus (Patagonia Early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina)
    • Palaeospheniscus (Early? – Late Miocene/Early Pliocene) – includes Chubutodyptes

Evolution

The evolutionary history of penguins is well-researched and represents a showcase of evolutionary biogeography; though as penguin bones of any one species vary much in size and few good specimens are known, the alpha taxonomy of many prehistoric forms still leaves much to be desired. Some seminal articles about penguin prehistory have been published since 2005, the evolution of the living genera can be considered resolved by now.

The basal penguins lived around the time of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event somewhere in the general area of (southern) New Zealand and Byrd Land, Antarctica. Due to plate tectonics, these areas were at that time less than 1,500 kilometers (932.1 mi) apart rather than the 4,000 kilometers (2,485.6 mi) of today. The most recent common ancestor of penguins and their sister clade can be roughly dated to the Campanian–Maastrichtian boundary, around 70–68 mya. What can be said as certainly as possible in the absence of direct (i.e., fossil) evidence is that by the end of the Cretaceous, the penguin lineage must have been evolutionarily well distinct, though much less so morphologically; it is fairly likely that they were not yet entirely flightless at that time, as flightless birds have generally low resilience to the breakdown of trophic webs which follows the initial phase of mass extinctions because of their below-average dispersal capabilities (see also Flightless Cormorant).

The basal fossils

The oldest known fossil penguin species is Waimanu manneringi, which lived in the early Paleocene epoch of New Zealand, or about 62 mya. While they were not as well-adapted to aquatic life as modern penguins, Waimanu were generally loon-like birds but already flightless, with short wings adapted for deep diving. They swam on the surface using mainly their feet, but the wings were – as opposed to most other diving birds, living and extinct – already adapting to underwater locomotion.

Perudyptes from northern Peru was dated to 42 mya. An unnamed fossil from Argentina proves that by the Bartonian (Middle Eocene), some 39–38 mya, primitive penguins had spread to South America and were in the process of expanding into Atlantic waters.

Palaeëudyptines

During the Late Eocene and the Early Oligocene (40–30 mya), some lineages of gigantic penguins existed. Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin was the tallest, growing nearly 1.80 meters (6 ft) tall. The New Zealand Giant Penguin was probably the heaviest, weighing 80 kg or more. Both were found on New Zealand, the former also in the Antarctic farther eastwards.

Traditionally, most extinct species of penguins, giant or small, had been placed in the paraphyletic subfamily called Palaeeudyptinae. More recently, with new taxa being discovered and placed in the phylogeny if possible, it is becoming accepted that there were at least two major extinct lineages. One or two closely related ones occurred in Patagonia, and at least one other – which is or includes the paleeudyptines as recognized today – occurred on most Antarctic and subantarctic coasts.

But size plasticity seems to have been great at this initial stage of penguin radiation: on Seymour Island, Antarctica, for example, around 10 known species of penguins ranging in size from medium to huge apparently coexisted some 35 mya during the Priabonian (Late Eocene). It is not even known whether the gigantic palaeeudyptines constitute a monophyletic lineage, or whether gigantism was evolved independently in a much restricted Palaeeudyptinae and the Anthropornithinae – whether they were considered valid, or whether there was a wide size range present in the Palaeeudyptinae as delimited as usually done these days (i.e., including Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi). The oldest well-described giant penguin, the 5-foot-tall Icadyptes salasi, actually occurred as far north as northern Peru about 36 mya.

In any case, the gigantic penguins had disappeared by the end of the Paleogene, around 25 mya. Their decline and disappearance coincided with the spread of the Squalodontoidea and other primitive, fish-eating toothed whales, which certainly competed with them for food, and were ultimately more successful. A new lineage, the Paraptenodytes which includes smaller but decidedly stout-legged forms, had already arisen in southernmost South America by that time. The early Neogene saw the emergence of yet another morphotype in the same area, the similarly-sized but more gracile Palaeospheniscinae, as well as the radiation which gave rise to the penguin biodiversity of our time.

Origin and systematics of modern penguins

Modern penguins consititute two undisputed clades and another two more basal genera with more ambiguous relationships. The origin of the Spheniscinae lies probably in the latest Paleogene, and geographically it must have been much the same as the general area in which the order evolved: the oceans between the Australia-New Zealand region and the Antarctic. Presumedly diverging from other penguins around 40 mya, it seems that the Spheniscinae were for quite some time limited to their ancestral area, as the well-researched deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia have not yielded Paleogene fossils of the subfamily. Also, the earliest spheniscine lineages are those with the most southern distribution.

The genus Aptenodytes appears to be the basalmost divergence among living penguins; they have bright yellow-orange neck, breast, and bill patches; incubate by placing their eggs on their feet, and when they hatch the chicks are almost naked. This genus has a distribution centered on the Antarctic coasts and barely extends to some subantarctic islands today.

Pygoscelis contains species with a fairly simple black-and-white head pattern; their distribution is intermediate, centered on Antarctic coasts but extending somewhat northwards from there. In external morphology, these apparently still resemble the common ancestor of the Spheniscinae, as Aptenodytes' autapomorphies are in most cases fairly pronounced adaptations related to that genus' extreme habitat conditions. As the former genus, Pygoscelis seems to have diverged during the Bartonian, but the range expansion and radiation which led to the present-day diversity probably did not occur until much later; around the Burdigalian stage of the Early Miocene, roughly 20–15 mya.

The genera Spheniscus and Eudyptula contain species with a mostly subantarctic distribution centered on South America; some, however, range quite far northwards. They all lack carotenoid coloration, and the former genus has a conspicuous banded head pattern; they are unique among living penguins by nesting in burrows. This group probably radiated eastwards with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current out of the ancestral range of modern penguins throughout the Chattian (Late Oligocene), starting approximately 28 mya. While the two genera separated during this time, the present-day diversity is the result of a Pliocene radiation, taking place some 4–2 mya.

The Megadyptes–Eudyptes clade occurs at similar latitudes (though not as far north as the Galapagos Penguin), has its highest diversity in the New Zealand region, and represent a westward dispersal. They are characterized by hairy yellow ornamental head feathers; their bills are at least partly red. These two genera diverged apparently in the Middle Miocene (Langhian, roughly 15–14 mya), but again, the living species of Eudyptes are the product of a later radiation, stretching from about the late Tortonian (Late Miocene, 8 mya) to the end of the Pliocene.

The geographical and temporal pattern or spheniscine evolution corresponds closely to two episodes of global cooling documented in the paleoclimatic record. The emergence of the subantarctic lineage at the end of the Bartonian corresponds with the onset of the slow period of cooling that eventually led to the ice ages some 35 million years later. With habitat on the Antarctic coasts declining, by the Priabonian more hospitable conditions for most penguins existed in the subantarctic regions rather than in Antarctica itself. Notably, the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current also started as a continuous circumpolar flow only around 30 mya, on the one hand forcing the Antarctic cooling, and on the other facilitating the eastward expansion of Spheniscus to South America and eventually beyond.

Later, an interspersed period of slight warming was ended by the Middle Miocene Climate Transition, a sharp drop in global average temperature from 14–12 mya, and similar abrupt cooling events followed at 8 mya and 4 mya; by the end of the Tortonian, the Antarctic ice sheet was already much like today in volume and extent. The emergence of most of today's subantarctic penguin species almost certainly was caused by this sequence of Neogene climate shifts.

Relationship to other bird orders

Penguin ancestry beyond Waimanu remains unknown and not well-resolved by molecular or morphological analyses. The latter tend to be confounded by the strong adaptive autapomorphies of the Sphenisciformes; a sometimes perceived fairly close relationship between penguins and grebes is almost certainly an error based on both groups' strong diving adaptations, which are homoplasies. On the other hand, different DNA sequence datasets do not agree in detail with each other either.

The penguin is an accomplished swimmer, having flippers instead of wings.

What seems clear is that penguins belong to a clade of Neoaves (living birds except paleognaths and fowl) which comprises what is sometimes called "higher waterbirds" to distinguish them from the more ancient waterfowl. This group contains such birds as storks, rails, and the seabirds, with the possible exception of the Charadriiformes.

Inside this group, penguin relationships are far less clear. Depending on the analysis and dataset, a close relationship to Ciconiiformes or to Procellariiformes has been suggested. Some think the penguin-like plotopterids (usually considered relatives of anhingas and cormorants) may actually be a sister group of the penguins, and that penguins may have ultimately shared a common ancestor with the Pelecaniformes and consequently would have to be included in that order, or that the plotopterids were not as close to other pelecaniforms as generally assumed, which would necessitate splitting the traditional Pelecaniformes in three.

The Auk of the Northern Hemisphere is superficially similar to penguins: they are not related to the penguins at all, but considered by some to be a product of moderate convergent evolution.

Penguins and humans

Etymology

A penguin encounters a human during Antarctic summer.

The word Penguin is thought by some to derive from the Welsh words pen (head) and gwyn (white), applied to the Great Auk which had white spots in front of its eyes (although its head was black); or from an island off Newfoundland known as Pengwyn, due to its having a large white rock. (In the latter case, the name may also have come from Breton.) This theory is supported by the fact that penguins look remarkably like Great Auks in general shape.

It is also possible that penguin comes from the Latin pinguis, “fat”. This is supported by the fact that the corresponding words in most other languages (e.g., French pingouin, German Pinguin) have i instead of e as the first vowel. However, a Welsh i is often sound-shifted to an e in the English language.^{[citation needed]}

Another theory states that the word is an alteration of “pen-wing”, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both Great Auks and penguins, but there is no evidence to support this.

What may be a King Penguin but certainly is a member of the Spheniscidae appears on a 1599 map at the Strait of Magellan with the caption "Pinguyn". The map's features are labeled in Latin, such as Fretum Magellanicum ("Strait of Magellan"). In addition, there is ample evidence that the Latin term anser magellanicus ("Goose of Magellan" or "Magellanic Goose") was the usual term for penguins in the scholarly literature of that time. If the English word was derived from Latin – e.g. avis pinguis ("fat bird") or pinguinus ("the fat one") – it must have originated considerably earlier than 1600.

In a final twist to the story, the term "Magellanic Goose" (today usually "Magellan Goose") in our time has come to denote an actual anseriform, namely a Chloephaga sheldgoose.

The pronunciation of the word in English varies somewhat: as either "PEN-gwin" or "PENG-gwin".

Penguins in popular culture

File:Tux.svg

Tux the Linux kernel mascot

Penguins are popular around the world, primarily for their unusually upright, waddling gait and (compared to other birds) lack of fear of humans. Their striking black-and-white plumage is often likened to a tuxedo suit. Mistakenly, some artists and writers have penguins based at the North Pole. This is incorrect, as there are almost no wild penguins in the northern hemisphere, except the small group on the northernmost of the Galápagos. The cartoon series Chilly Willy helped perpetuate this myth, as the title penguin would interract with northern-hemisphere species such as polar bears and walruses.

Penguins have been the subject of many books and films such as Happy Feet and Surf's Up, both CGI films; March of the Penguins, a documentary based on the migration process of Emperors; and a parody entitled Farce of the Penguins. Penguins have also found their way into a number of cartoons and television dramas; perhaps the most notable of these is Pingu, created by Silvio Mazzola in 1986 and covering more than 100 short episodes.

The tendency of penguins to form large groups feeds the stereotype that they all look exactly alike, a popular notion exploited by cartoonists such as Gary Larson.

Penguins featured regularly in the cartoons of UK cartoonist Steve Bell in his strip in The Guardian Newspaper, particularly during and following the Falklands War.

In the mid-2000s, penguins became one of the most publicized species of animals that form lasting homosexual couples. A children's book, And Tango Makes Three, was written about one such penguin family in the New York Zoo.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Bibliography

Howard, L. 2003. "Sphenisciformes" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 07, 2009 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Sphenisciformes.html.

• Two new fossil penguin species found in Peru
• Acosta Hospitaleche, Carolina (2004): Los pingüinos (Aves, Sphenisciformes) fósiles de Patagonia. Sistemática, biogeografía y evolución. Doctoral thesis, Department of Natural Sciences and Museum, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. La Plata, Argentina. [in Spanish] PDF fulltext
• Baker, Allan J.; Pereira, Sergio Luiz; Haddrath, Oliver P. & Edge, Kerri-Anne (2006): Multiple gene evidence for expansion of extant penguins out of Antarctica due to global cooling. Proc. R. Soc. B 273: 11-17. Digital object identifier (DOI): 10.1098/rspb.2005.3260 PDF fulltext
• Banks, Jonathan C.; Mitchell, Anthony D.; Waas, Joseph R. & Paterson, Adrian M. (2002): An unexpected pattern of molecular divergence within the blue penguin (Eudyptula minor) complex. Notornis 49(1): 29–38. PDF fulltext
• Bertelli, Sara & Giannini, Norberto P. (2005): A phylogeny of extant penguins (Aves: Sphenisciformes) combining morphology and mitochondrial sequences. Cladistics 21(3): 209–239. Digital object identifier (DOI): 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2005.00065.x (HTML abstract)
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External links

• Information about penguins at pinguins.info
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System
• PBS Nature: The World of Penguins
• Penguin information on 70South
• Penguin research projects on the web
• Penguin Videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Penguin World
• Penguins in Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• Seaworld Penguin Information

Birds
Anatomy: Anatomy - Skeleton - Flight - Eggs - Feathers - Plumage
Evolution and extinction. Evolution - Archaeopteryx - Hybridisation - Late Quaternary prehistoric birds - Fossils - Taxonomy - Extinction
Behaviour: Singing - Intelligence - Migration - Reproduction- Brood parasites
Bird types: Seabirds - Shorebirds - Waterbirds - Song birds - Raptors - Poultry
Bird lists: Familes and orders - Lists by region
Birds and Humans: Ringing - Ornithology - Birdwatching - Birdfeeding - Conservation - Aviculture

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