Class Aves Family Spheniscidae | 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(Text) CC BY-SA