Tasidyptes hunteri Van Tets and O’Connor, 1983

Park, Travis & Fitzgerald, Erich M. G., 2012, A review of Australian fossil penguins (Aves: Sphenisciformes), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 69, pp. 309-325 : 320

Tasidyptes hunteri Van Tets and O’Connor, 1983

Holotype. Pelvis in three parts ( ANWC BS2670 ) ( Table 2).

Type locality. Stockyard Site, Hunter Island , 5 km north of Tasmania (40°32'S, 144°45'E) .

Horizon and age. Material found in an aboriginal midden. Carbon dating resulted in an age of 760 ± 70 ybp (Holocene).

Referred material. The paratype specimen is a left tarsometatarsus ( ANWC BS2668 ) . Also referred to the species are a juvenile synsacrum ( ANWC BS2667 ) and a left coracoid ( ANWC BS2669 ) . ( Table 2)

Diagnosis. Differs from Eudyptula and Megadyptes by having: a caudal part of the synsacrum with relatively broader fused vertebrae and long slender lateral processes; and the lateral foramen vasculare proximale situated more distal than the medial foramen vasculare proximale on the plantar surface of the tarsometatarsus. However, this character is not clear from the figure in Van Tets and O’Connor (1983: Fig. 4 ).

Remarks. This taxon is no longer considered valid due to the fragmentary nature of the fossils, the fact that the coracoid and tarsometatarsus are indistinguishable from Eudyptes and the fact that the four specimens come from three different stratigraphic layers of the midden ( Van Tets and O’Connor, 1983; Fordyce and Jones, 1990; Ksepka and Clarke, 2010). However, Ksepka and Clarke (2010) note that due to the young age of the specimens, DNA testing to confirm their identity may well be possible. Ksepka and Ando (2011: 178) also draw attention to the synsacrum stating that the long slender lateral processes may be “a possible diagnostic character, certainly in need of quantitative evaluation”.

Figures

Figure 4. Pachydyptes simpsoni holotype, SAM P14157: A, right radius in ventral view, left carpometacarpus and left phalanx II-1 in dorsal view; B, head of right humerus in dorsal view; C, left coracoid in dorsal view; D,?twelfth cervical vertebra in ventral view.