Pachydyptes

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iPachydyptes Fossil range: Late Eocene
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Sphenisciformes Family: Spheniscidae Subfamily: Palaeeudyptinae Genus: Pachydyptes Oliver, 1930 Species: P. ponderosus
Binomial name
Pachydyptes ponderosus Oliver, 1930
Synonyms
Palaeeudyptes antarcticus Hector, 1873 (partim) Pachydyptes ponderosa Lowe, 1939 (lapsus) Anthropornis ponderosus Lowe, 1939 Anthropornis ponderosa Lowe, 1939 (lapsus) Anthropornis nordenskjoldi Lowe, 1939 (partim)

Pachydyptes is an extinct genus 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 (34-37 MYA) rocks in the area of Otago, and a fine specimen found near Kawhia, New Zealand, in January 2006.

With a height of 140-160 cm (c. 5 ft) and weighing around 80, maybe over 100 kg, it was the second-tallest penguin ever, surpassed only by Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi in size, but probably not in weight. As George Gaylord Simpson famously quipped, "[Pachydyptes'] height would not suffice for basketball but their weight was about right for American football."

[edit] References

• Oliver, Walter R. B. (1930). [Genus Pachydyptes]. In: New Zealand birds, 85-86. Wellington: Fine Arts.

[edit] External links

• Wikinews: Students find fossilised giant penguin