Palaeospheniscus
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Palaeospheniscus is an extinct genus of penguins which contains three or four species at present. They are all (except P. bergi, which is somewhat enigmatic) known from one or two handful of bones. All specimens were found in Santa Cruz and Chubut Provinces of Patagonia, Argentina. The fossils were recovered from the Patagonian Molasse Formation, which is Early Miocene in age. P. gracilis was long believed to be from the Early Oligocene, but this is now thought to be erroneous. Some recent researchers consider P. gracilis and P. wimani synonyms, and merge Chubutodyptes into this genus as P. biloculatus.
The species of Palaeospheniscus were medium-sized to largish penguins, ranging from P. gracilis with an estimated maximal length of 55 cm to P. wimani, which reached up to 73 cm.
Palaeospheniscus is the namesake of the subfamily Palaeospheniscinae. It is apparently not closely related to the modern genus Spheniscus.
References
- Moreno, Francisco "Perito" & Mercerat, A. (1891): Catálogo de los pájaros fósiles de la República Argentina conservados en el Museo de La Plata. Anales del Museo de La Plata 1: 7-71, 21 plates.
- Simpson, George Gaylord (1971): Conspectus of Patagonian fossil penguins. American Museum novitates 2488: 1-37. [PDF fulltext]
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