Search for: All records

Recent fossil discoveries from New Zealand have revealed a remarkably diverse assemblage of Paleocene stem group penguins. Here, we add to this growing record by describing nine new penguin specimens from the late Paleocene (upper Teurian local stage; 55.5–59.5 Ma) Moeraki Formation of the South Island, New Zealand. The largest specimen is assigned to a new species,Kumimanu fordycein. sp., which may have been the largest penguin ever to have lived. Allometric regressions based on humerus length and humerus proximal width of extant penguins yield mean estimates of a live body mass in the range of 148.0 kg (95% CI: 132.5 kg–165.3 kg) and 159.7 kg (95% CI: 142.6 kg–178.8 kg), respectively, forKumimanu fordycei. A second new species,Petradyptes stonehousein. gen. n. sp., is represented by five specimens and was slightly larger than the extant emperor penguinAptenodytes forsteri. Two small humeri represent an additional smaller unnamed penguin species. Parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses recoverKumimanuandPetradyptescrownward of the early Paleocene mainland NZ taxaWaimanuandMuriwaimanu, but stemward of the Chatham Island taxonKupoupou. These analyses differ, however, in the placement of these two taxa relative toSequiwaimanu,Crossvallia, andKaiika. The massive size and placement ofKumimanu fordyceiclose to the root of the penguin tree provide additional support for a scenario in which penguins reached the upper limit of sphenisciform body size very early in their evolutionary history, while still retaining numerous plesiomorphic features of the flipper.

UUID:https://zoobank.org/15b1d5b2-a5a0-4aa5-ba0a-8ef3b8461730

 

No abstract available. 

New Zealand is a globally significant hotspot for seabird diversity, but the sparse fossil record for most seabird lineages has impeded our understanding of how and when this hotspot developed. Here, we describe multiple exceptionally well-preserved specimens of a new species of penguin from tightly dated (3.36–3.06 Ma) Pliocene deposits in New Zealand. Bayesian and parsimony analyses place Eudyptes atatu sp. nov. as the sister species to all extant and recently extinct members of the crested penguin genus Eudyptes . The new species has a markedly more slender upper beak and mandible compared with other Eudyptes penguins. Our combined evidence approach reveals that deep bills evolved in both crested and stiff-tailed penguins ( Pygoscelis ) during the Pliocene. That deep bills arose so late in the greater than 60 million year evolutionary history of penguins suggests that dietary shifts may have occurred as wind-driven Pliocene upwelling radically restructured southern ocean ecosystems. Ancestral area reconstructions using BioGeoBEARS identify New Zealand as the most likely ancestral area for total-group penguins, crown penguins and crested penguins. Our analyses provide a timeframe for recruitment of crown penguins into the New Zealand avifauna, indicating this process began in the late Neogene and was completed via multiple waves of colonizing lineages.