| Brush-tailed penguins Temporal range: Eocene to present | |
|---|---|
) | |
| Pygoscelis antarctica | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Sphenisciformes |
| Family: | Spheniscidae |
| Genus: | Pygoscelis Wagler, 1832 |
| Species | |
| Pygoscelis adeliae | |
The genus Pygoscelis ("rump-legged") contains three living species of penguins collectively known as "brush-tailed penguins".[1]
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.[2]
- Extant species
| Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
) | Pygoscelis adeliae | Adélie penguin | Antarctica |
) | Pygoscelis antarctica | Chinstrap penguin | Antarctica, Argentina, Bouvet Island, Chile, the Falkland Islands, the French Southern Territories, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
) | Pygoscelis papua | Gentoo penguin | Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Kerguelen Islands |
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).[3][4]
- 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
- ^ "Pygoscelis". www.pinguins.info. 2000. Archived from the original on 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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. doi:10.1002/ece3.6973. ISSN 2045-7758. PMC 7771148.
- ^ 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. doi:10.1111/ddi.13072. ISSN 1472-4642.