Stonehouse’s penguin
Petradyptes stonehousei Ksepka, Field, Heath, Pett, Thomas, Giovanardi & Tennyson, 2023
Species information
Stonehouse’s penguin was a large species that lived 60-55 million years ago, making it one of the oldest known penguin species. At about 50 kg, it would have weighed notably more than the largest living species, the emperor penguin, which weighs about 30 kg.
Stonehouse’s penguin is known from five different specimens, found between 2015 and 2018, which include many of the body, flipper and legs bones but the skull and foot are not represented. All the specimens were originally encased in solid rock concretions and were meticulously prepared out by Al Mannering. The fossils were formed when their bodies sank to the sea floor and they were buried and encased in rock. Subsequently, tectonic uplift raised the rocks out of the ocean, where they were then exposed on beaches through erosion. The remains are held in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.
The species is named in honour of Bernard Stonehouse, in recognition of his landmark contributions to the study of penguins, as well as his work on other New Zealand birds and his generous encouragement of fossil penguin researchers. The name Petradyptes combines the Greek 'petra' for rock and 'dyptes' for diver, a play on the diving bird being preserved in a boulder.
Weblinks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petradyptes
https://fossilpenguins.wordpress.com/2023/02/09/giant-penguins-honor-giants-in-science/
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/giant-penguin
https://www.livescience.com/largest-penguin-ever-discovered-weighed-a-whopping-340-pounds-fossils-reveal
References
Ksepka, D.T.; Field, D.J.; Heath, T.A.; Pett, W.; Thomas, D.B.; Giovanardi, S.; Tennyson, A.J.D. 2023. Largest-known fossil penguin provides insight into the early evolution of sphenisciform body size and flipper anatomy. Journal of Paleontology 97: 434-453. https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2022.88.
Recommended citation
Tennyson, A.J.D. 2024. Stonehouse’s penguin. In Miskelly, C.M. (ed.) New Zealand Birds Online. www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz
Breeding and ecology
Stonehouse’s penguin
No data available.
