Archaeospheniscus lowei
| Lowe's penguin Temporal range: Late Oligocene 28–27Ma | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Fossil | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Sphenisciformes |
| Family: | Spheniscidae |
| Genus: | Archaeospheniscus |
| Species: | A. lowei |
| Binomial name | |
| Archaeospheniscus lowei Marples, 1952 | |
Lowe's penguin (Archaeospheniscus lowei) is the type species of the extinct penguin genus Archaeospheniscus. It stood approximately 85-115 cm high, between a modern king penguin and an emperor penguin in size. It is known from bones of a single individual (Otago Museum C.47.20) and possibly some additional material such as the OM C.47.27 femur, all recovered from the Late Oligocene Kokoamu Greensand Formation (27-28 MYA) at Duntroon, New Zealand.
The species' binomen was given in honor of Percy Lowe, who researched prehistoric penguins and proposed a theory (now considered erroneous) that these birds were derived from reptiles independently of the other modern birds.
References
- Marples, Brian J. (1952): Early Tertiary penguins of New Zealand. New Zealand Geol. Surv., Paleont. Bull. 20: 1-66.
- 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