Sphenisciformes (Ksepka & Clarke, 2010)

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

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.2012.69.06

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03CEBC7D-FFB6-5A76-8D31-C21BFD6BFD5E

treatment provided by

Felipe (2024-06-21 18:27:00, last updated 2024-06-21 22:24:29)

scientific name

Sphenisciformes
status

 

The Sphenisciformes View in CoL View at ENA

Sphenisciformes View in CoL (penguins) are a group of flightless marine birds confined to the southern hemisphere. Contrary to popular stereotype, not all species reside in Antarctica, with the highest species diversity found in New Zealand (Ksepka et al., 2012) and one species (the Galapagos penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus Sundevall, 1871 View in CoL actually living at the equator ( Vargas et al., 2005; Jadwiszczak, 2009). Fossil species are found in the same regions as extant species ( Simpson, 1975), with Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and South America all possessing both fossil and extant assemblages. Present regional species diversities roughly correspond to past levels, with areas such as New Zealand and Antarctica well represented by numerous fossil and living species, despite the fossil record not being continuous throughout the Cenozoic ( Ksepka & Ando, 2011; Ksepka et al., 2012)( Fig. 1 View Figure 1 ). One of the most specialised avian groups ( Kaiser, 2007), the morphology of living penguins is well known ( Pycraft, 1898; Lowe, 1933; Marples, 1952) and they have evolved a range of adaptations to an aquatic lifestyle including: small and scalelike feathers; increased underwater visual acuity ( Sivak & Millodot, 1977; Bowmaker & Martin, 1985); several retia mirabilia systems for efficient thermoregulation ( Frost et al., 1975; Thomas & Fordyce, 2007, 2012); stiffening of wing joints (Raikow et al., 1998); relative shortening of the wing; hydrodynamic flattening of wing elements; and shortening of the tarsometatarsus. The Sphenisciformes View in CoL differ from most avian groups in that total diversity was greater in the past than present, with 19 extant species (sensu Ksepka & Ando, 2011), and 53 recognised fossil species ( Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ). This is testament to their aquatic lifestyle and the fact that particular penguin bones (e.g. humerus, tarsometatarsus) are more likely to fossilise than their equivalents in other avian groups due to their pachyostotic histology ( Meister, 1962). Extant species feed on small fish, cephalopods, crustaceans and plankton, and show little interspecific postcranial morphological variation ( Olson, 1985). Interspecific differences in cranial morphology are minimal; the differences that do occur probably reflect disparate feeding ecology ( Zusi, 1975).

Bowmaker, J. K., and Martin, G. R. 1985. Visual pigments and oil droplets in the penguin, Spheniscus humboldti. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 156: 71 - 77.

Frost, P. G. H., Siegfried, W. R., and Greenwood, P. J. 1975. Arteriovenous heat exchange systems in the Jackass penguin Spheniscus demersus. Journal of Zoology 175: 231 - 241.

Jadwiszczak, P. 2009. Penguin past: the current state of knowledge. Polish Polar Research 30: 3 - 28.

Kaiser, G. W. 2007. The Inner Bird. Anatomy and Evolution. UBC Press: Vancouver. 386 pp.

Ksepka, D. T., and Ando, T. 2011. Penguins Past, Present, and Future: Trends in the Evolution of the Sphenisciformes. Pp. 155 - 186 in Dyke, G., and Kaiser, G. (eds), Living Dinosaurs. The Evolutionary History of Modern Birds. Wiley-Blackwell: West Sussex. 422 pp.

Lowe, P. R. 1933. On the primitive characters of the penguins, and their bearing on the phylogeny of birds. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 2: 483 - 538.

Marples, B. J. 1952. Early Tertiary penguins of New Zealand. New Zealand Geological Survey Palaeontological Bulletin 20: 1 - 66.

Meister, W. 1962. Histological structure of the long bones of penguins. The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology 143: 377 - 387.

Olson, S. L. 1985. The fossil record of birds. Pp. 79 - 238 in Framer D. S., King J. R., and Parkes, K. C. (eds), Avian Biology. Academic Press: New York 256 pp.

Pycraft, W. P. 1898. Contributions to the osteology of birds. Part II. Impennes. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1898: 958 - 989.

Simpson, G. G. 1975. Notes on variation in penguins and on fossil penguins from the Pliocene of Langebannweg, Cape Province, South Africa. Annals of the South Africa Museum 69: 59 - 72.

Sivak, J. G., and Millodot, M. 1977. Optical performance of the penguin eye in air and water. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 119: 241 - 247.

Thomas, D. B., and Fordyce, R. E. 2007. The heterothermic loophole exploited by penguins. Australian Journal of Zoology 55: 317 - 321.

Vargas, H., Lougheed, C., and Snell, H. 2005. Population size and trends of the Galapagos Penguin Spheniscus mendiculus. Ibis 147: 367 - 374.

Zusi, R. L. 1975. An interpretation of the skull structure in penguins. Pp. 59 - 84 in B Stonehouse, B. (ed), The Biology of Penguins. The Macmillan Press: London. 555 pp.

Gallery Image

Figure 1. Chronostratigraphy and correlation of Australian fossil penguin-bearing units, compared with the fossil record of Sphenisciformes on other continents. Note that the vertical ranges of stratigraphic units represent estimates of geologic age maxima and minima for penguin-bearing horizons, not necessarily discrete time-spans of deposition. Geologic timescale is after Gradstein et al. (2004) with updates from Walker and Geissman (2009). See Table 1 for references to ages of Australian units. Ages of African units: Hendey (1981); Roberts et al. (2011); Ksepka and Thomas (2012). Ages of Antarctic units: Dingle and Lavelle (2000); Jadwiszczak (2006); Marenssi et al. (2012). Ages of New Zealand units: White and Waterhouse (1993); Cooper (2004); Slack et al. (2006); Ksepka et al. (2012). Ages of South American units: Devries (1998); Scasso et al. (2001); Celma and Cantalamessa (2007); Achurra et al. (2009); Malumián and Náñez (2011); Uhen et al. (2011).

Gallery Image

Figure 2. Temporally-calibrated phylogeny of Sphenisciformes modified from Ksepka and Ando (2011) and Ksepka et al. (2012), showing major trends in Sphenisciform evolution and the first occurrence of Sphenisciformes in each region with extant species. Stem sphenisciform branches are shown in black and crown clade Spheniscidae branches are shown in blue. Thick horizontal bars on branches indicate stratigraphic range maxima and minima. Abbreviations: AF, Africa; AN, Antarctica; AU, Australia; Ma, million years ago; SA, South America.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Sphenisciformes