Harman Patil (Editor)

Archaeospheniscus lowei

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Kingdom
  
Animalia

Class
  
Aves

Family
  
Spheniscidae

Scientific name
  
Archaeospheniscus lowei

Phylum
  
Chordata

Order
  
Sphenisciformes

Genus
  
Archaeospheniscus

Rank
  
Species

Similar
  
Archaeospheniscus, Palaeeudyptes antarcticus, Palaeospheniscus, Paraptenodytes, Pachydyptes

Archaeospheniscus lowei, Lowe's penguin, is the type species of the extinct penguin genus Archaeospheniscus. It stood approximately 85-115 cm high, between a modern king penguin and an emperor penguin in size. It is known from bones of a single individual (Otago Museum C.47.20) and possibly some additional material such as the OM C.47.27 femur, all recovered from the Late Oligocene Kokoamu Greensand Formation (27-28 MYA) at Duntroon, New Zealand.

The species' binomen was given in honor of Percy Lowe, who researched prehistoric penguins and proposed a theory (now considered erroneous) that these birds were derived from reptiles independently of the other modern birds.

References

Archaeospheniscus lowei Wikipedia