Pygoscelis

Brush-tailed penguins Temporal range: Eocene to present
Pygoscelis antarctica
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Sphenisciformes
Family:	Spheniscidae
Genus:	Pygoscelis Wagler, 1832
Type species
Aptenodytes antarctica [1]
Species
Pygoscelis adeliae Pygoscelis antarctica Pygoscelis papua † Pygoscelis tyreei (fossil) † Pygoscelis calderensis (fossil) † Pygoscelis grandis (fossil)

The genus Pygoscelis ("rump-legged") contains three living species of penguins collectively known as "brush-tailed penguins". ^[2]

Taxonomy

Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA evidence suggests the genus split from other penguins around 38 million years ago, about 2 million years after the ancestors of the genus Aptenodytes . In turn, the Adelie penguins split off from the other members of the genus around 19 million years ago. ^[3]

Extant species

Genus Pygoscelis – Wagler, 1832 – three species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Adélie penguin	Pygoscelis adeliae (Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841)	Antarctica, Bouvet Island	Size: 70–73 cm (28–29 in) in length and a weight of 3.8 to 8.2 kg (8.4 to 18.1 lb). [4] [5] Habitat: Diet:	LC
Chinstrap penguin	Pygoscelis antarcticus (Forster, 1781)	Antarctica, Argentina, Bouvet Island, Chile, the Falkland Islands, the French Southern Territories, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	Size: 68–76 cm (27–30 in) in length and a weight of 3.2–5.3 kg (7.1–11.7 lb) Habitat: Diet:	LC
Gentoo penguin	Pygoscelis papua (Forster, 1781) Four subspecies P. p. taeniata (Peale, 1849) P. p. papua (Forster, 1781) P. p. ellsworthi Murphy, 1947 P. p. poncetii Tyler, Bonfitto, Clucas, Reddy & Younger, 2020	Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Kerguelen Islands	Size: length of 70 to 90 cm (28 to 35 in), with weight of 4.5–8.5 kg (9.9–18.7 lb) [6] Habitat: Diet:	LC

A 2020 study found that the gentoo penguin may actually comprise a species complex of 4 similar but genetically distinct species: the northern gentoo penguin (P. papua), the southern gentoo penguin (P. ellsworthi), the eastern gentoo penguin (P. taeniata), and the newly-described South Georgia gentoo penguin (P. poncetii). ^{[7] [8]} However, in 2021 the International Ornithological Congress recognized these as being subspecies of P. papua. ^[9]

A study has estimated that there are about 3.79 million pairs of Adélie, 387,000 pairs of gentoo, and 8 million pairs of chinstrap penguins in their particular areas, ^[10] making up 90% of Antarctic avian biomass. ^[11]

Fossil species

• Pygoscelis grandis (Bahía Inglesa Formation, Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Bahía Inglesa, Chile)
• Pygoscelis calderensis (Bahía Inglesa Formation, Late Miocene of Bahía Inglesa, Chile)
• Pygoscelis tyreei (Pliocene of New Zealand)

The latter two are tentatively assigned to this genus.

References

1. Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Gottingensis 3 (1780): 134, 141, pl.4.
2. "Pygoscelis". www.pinguins.info. 2000. Archived from the original on 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
3. Baker AJ, Pereira SL, Haddrath OP, Edge KA (2006). "Multiple gene evidence for expansion of extant penguins out of Antarctica due to global cooling". Proc Biol Sci. 273 (1582): 11–17. doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3260. PMC   1560011 . PMID   16519228.
4. De Roy, Jones & Cornthwaite 2014, p. 204. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDe_RoyJonesCornthwaite2014 (help)
5. Shirihai 2002, p. 64. sfn error: no target: CITEREFShirihai2002 (help)
6. "Pygoscelis papua (gentoo penguin)". Animal Diversity Web.
7. Tyler, Joshua; Bonfitto, Matthew T.; Clucas, Gemma V.; Reddy, Sushma; Younger, Jane L. (2020). "Morphometric and genetic evidence for four species of gentoo penguin". Ecology and Evolution. 10 (24): 13836–13846. Bibcode:2020EcoEv..1013836T. doi:10.1002/ece3.6973. ISSN   2045-7758. PMC   7771148 . PMID   33391684.
8. Pertierra, Luis R.; Segovia, Nicolás I.; Noll, Daly; Martinez, Pablo A.; Pliscoff, Patricio; Barbosa, Andrés; Aragón, Pedro; Rey, Andrea Raya; Pistorius, Pierre; Trathan, Phil; Polanowski, Andrea (2020). "Cryptic speciation in gentoo penguins is driven by geographic isolation and regional marine conditions: Unforeseen vulnerabilities to global change". Diversity and Distributions. 26 (8): 958–975. Bibcode:2020DivDi..26..958P. doi: 10.1111/ddi.13072 . hdl: 11336/141106 . ISSN   1472-4642.
9. "Kagu, Sunbittern, tropicbirds, loons, penguins – IOC World Bird List" . Retrieved 2022-06-11.
10. Black, Caitlin E. (2016-03-01). "A comprehensive review of the phenology of Pygoscelis penguins" . Polar Biology. 39 (3): 405–432. Bibcode:2016PoBio..39..405B. doi:10.1007/s00300-015-1807-8. ISSN   1432-2056. S2CID   253810985.
11. Williams, Tony D. (1995). The penguins: Spheniscidae. Bird families of the world. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 137. ISBN   978-0-19-854667-2.