| Aptenodytes | |
|---|---|
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| Emperor penguins swimming | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Sphenisciformes |
| Family: | Spheniscidae |
| Genus: | Aptenodytes Miller, JF, 1778 |
| Type species | |
| Aptenodytes patagonicus | |
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Aptenodytes patagonicus patagonicus Aptenodytes patagonicus halli Aptenodytes ridgeni (fossil) breeding grounds | |
The genus Aptenodytes contains two extant species of penguins collectively known as "the great penguins". [2]
The name "Aptenodytes" is a composite of Ancient Greek elements, "ἀ-πτηνο-δύτης" (without-wings-diver). [3]
Combined morphological and molecular data [4] have shown the genus Aptenodytes to be basal to all other living penguins, that is, the genus split off from a branch which led to all other species. DNA evidence suggests this split occurred around 40 million years ago. [5] This had been foreshadowed by an attempt to classify penguins by their behavior, which also predicted the genus' basal nature. [6]
Two species are extant: [8]
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| King penguin | Aptenodytes patagonicus Miller, JF, 1778 Two subspecies
| Breeds on the subantarctic islands between 45° and 55° S at the northern reaches of Antarctica, as well as Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands and other temperate islands of the region. | Size: 90 cm (3 ft) tall, weighing 11 to 16 kg (24 to 35 lb), The upper parts are steel blue-grey, darkening to black on the head, the belly is white fading to orange on the upper breast with bright orange ear patches. The black bill is long and slender. The lower mandible bears a striking pink or orange-coloured mandibular plate Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Emperor penguin | Aptenodytes forsteri Gray, 1844 | Circumpolar distribution in the Antarctic between the 66° and 77° S. It almost always breeds on stable pack ice near the coast and wander up to 18 km (11 mi) offshore. [9]  | Size: 122 cm (4 ft) tall, weighing 22–37 kg (48.5–82 lb), the adult has deep black dorsal feathers, covering: the head, chin, throat, back, dorsal part of the flippers and tail. The underparts of the wings and belly are white, becoming pale yellow in the upper breast, and ear patches are bright yellow. The upper mandible is black and the lower mandible can be pink, orange or lilac. Males and females are similar in size and coloration. Habitat: Diet: | NT |
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae of the order Sphenisciformes. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapted for life in the ocean water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch with their bills and swallow whole while swimming. A penguin has a spiny tongue and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey.
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 100 cm (39 in) in length and weighing from 22 to 45 kg. Feathers of the head and back are black and sharply delineated from the white belly, pale-yellow breast and bright-yellow ear patches.
The gentoo penguin is a penguin species in the genus Pygoscelis, most closely related to the Adélie penguin and the chinstrap penguin. The earliest scientific description was made in 1781 by Johann Reinhold Forster with a type locality in the Falkland Islands. The species calls in a variety of ways, but the most frequently heard is a loud trumpeting, which the bird emits with its head thrown back.
Physeteroidea is a superfamily that includes three extant species of whales: the sperm whale, in the genus Physeter, and the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale, in the genus Kogia. In the past, these genera have sometimes been united in a single family, the Physeteridae, with the two Kogia species in the subfamily Kogiinae; however, recent practice is to allocate the genus Kogia to its own family, the Kogiidae, leaving the Physeteridae as a monotypic family, although additional fossil representatives of both families are known.
The king penguin is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin.
The genus Pygoscelis ("rump-legged") contains three living species of penguins collectively known as "brush-tailed penguins".
Eudyptes is a genus of penguins whose members are collectively called crested penguins. The exact number of species in the genus varies between four and seven depending on the authority, and a Chatham Islands species became extinct in recent centuries. All are black and white penguins with yellow crests, red bills and eyes, and are found on Subantarctic islands in the world's southern oceans. All lay two eggs, but raise only one young per breeding season; the first egg laid is substantially smaller than the second.
The banded penguins are penguins that belong to the genus Spheniscus. There are four living species, all with similar banded plumage-patterns. They are sometimes also known as "jack-ass penguins" due to their loud locator-calls sounding similar to a donkey braying. Common traits include a band of black that runs around their bodies bordering their black dorsal coloring, black beaks with a small vertical white band, distinct spots on their bellies, and a small patch of unfeathered or thinly feathered skin around their eyes and underdeveloped fluff sack that can be either white or pink. All members of this genus lay eggs and raise their young in nests situated in burrows or in natural depressions in the earth.
Myxophaga is the second-smallest suborder of the Coleoptera after Archostemata, consisting of roughly 65 species of small to minute beetles in four families. The members of this suborder are aquatic and semiaquatic, and feed on algae.
The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: Homo (humans) and Pan, and in standard usage exclude the genus Gorilla (gorillas), which is grouped separately within subfamily Homininae.
The great albatrosses are seabirds in the genus Diomedea in the albatross family. The genus Diomedea formerly included all albatrosses except the sooty albatrosses, but in 1996 the genus was split, with the mollymawks and the North Pacific albatrosses both being elevated to separate genera.
Paraptenodytes is an extinct genus of penguins which contains two or three species sized between a Magellanic penguin and an emperor penguin. They are known from fossil bones ranging from a partial skeleton and some additional material in the case of P. antarcticus, the type specimen for the genus, and a single humerus in the case of P. brodkorbi. The latter species is therefore often considered invalid; a recent study considers it indeed valid, but distinct enough not to belong into Paraptenodytes. The fossils were found in the Santa Cruz and Chubut Provinces of Patagonia, Argentina, in the Gaiman, Monte León and Santa Cruz Formations of Early to Middle Miocene age. Later occurrences are apparently from Late Miocene or possibly even Early Pliocene deposits.
In phylogenetics, basal is the direction of the base of a rooted phylogenetic tree or cladogram. The term may be more strictly applied only to nodes adjacent to the root, or more loosely applied to nodes regarded as being close to the root. Note that extant taxa that lie on branches connecting directly to the root are not more closely related to the root than any other extant taxa.
Cheiragonidae is a small family of crabs, sometimes called helmet crabs, placed in its own superfamily, Cheriagonoidea. It comprises three extant species, Erimacrus isenbeckii, Telmessus acutidens and Telmessus cheiragonus, there are no yet evidences of Cheiragonidae in the fossil record. Many of these crabs were formerly treated as members of the Atelecyclidae.
Tereingaornis moisleyi, also referred to as Moisley's penguin, is a genus and species of extinct penguin from the Middle Pliocene of New Zealand. It was slightly smaller than the extant Fiordland crested penguin. It was described by Ron Scarlett in 1983 from fossil material found by William Moisley near Te Reinga Falls on the Wairoa River, in the Hawke's Bay Region of the North Island. Another specimen was found later at Waihi Beach, Hāwera, on the South Taranaki Bight. The genus name Tereingaornis combines the name of the type locality with the Greek ornis ("bird"); the specific epithet honours the discoverer of the fossil.
Barbara Wienecke is a senior research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division. She is a seabird ecologist who uses satellite tracking to investigate seabird population dynamics and ecology. Wienecke has played a key role in enhancing the quality of, and overseeing the implementation of, a number of Antarctic Specially Protected Area management plans for wildlife concentrations in East Antarctica.
Media related to Aptenodytes at Wikimedia Commons
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