Brian Marples (1952) created the genus Archaeospheniscus to include two previously undescribed New Zealand fossil penguin species: Lowe’s penguin and Lopdell’s penguin. A third species from Seymour Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula, has since been added. The genus name means old penguin.

The New Zealand Archaeospheniscus penguins were large penguins of the Late Oligocene (27-25 million years ago). All the specimens referred to both species were found at Duntroon, North Otago. It is possible that they are all referable to a single species of variable size.

Lopdell’s penguin was the larger of the two Archaeospheniscus species, and was probably of similar size to an emperor penguin. It was described from a nearly complete skeleton found by Brian Marples in 1943. The holotype (OM C.47.21) is held in Otago Museum.

The species name honours Dr and Mrs J.C. Lopdell who assisted Marples with field work and specimen preparation.

Weblinks

Wikipedia - Archaeospheniscus

Wikipedia - Archaeospheniscus lopdelli

References

Marples, B.J. 1952. Early Tertiary penguins of New Zealand. New Zealand Geological Survey, Paleontological Bulletin 20: 1-66.

Simpson, G.G. 1971. A review of the pre-Pliocene penguins of New Zealand. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 144: 319-378.

Tennyson, A.J.D.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Worthy, T.H. 2010. Emending the species name for Lopdells’ penguin. Notornis 57: 54-55.

Recommended citation

Miskelly, C.M. 2013 [updated 2022]. Lopdells’ penguin. In Miskelly, C.M. (ed.) New Zealand Birds Online. www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz