Other Penguin Species
Penguins are believed to have evolved at least 65 million years ago from the same ancestral stock as the albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels. Of the 32 fossil penguin species known to science, 16 have been recorded in New Zealand. Many of the ancient penguins were much bigger than their present day descendants. Overall measurements indicate that extinct penguins averaged 90cm in height as opposed to present day penguins averaging 60cm. The largest known fossil penguin, Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, found on Seymour Island in Antarctica, stood 170cm tall. In New Zealand, Pachydyptes ponderosus, found near Oamaru stood 164cm tall! The World's Penguins. From a poster by Nature Lines
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There
are 17 penguin species in the world, 13 of which occur in the New
Zealand region, 4 species breed on the mainland of New Zealand.
The yellow-eyed penguin is probably the world's rarest penguin.
It is the only member of the genus Megadyptes and is the
possibly the most ancient of all living penguins.
