Pachydyptes

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Pachydyptes
Fossil range: Late Eocene

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 to 37 MYA) rocks in the area of Otago, and a fine specimen found near Kawhia, New Zealand, in January 2006^{[verification needed]}.

With a height of 140 to 160 cm (about 5 ft) and weighing around 80 to possibly 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."