The History of Penguins

Prehistoric
Penguins are one of the oldest kinds of birds. It is believed that penguins have been around for 50 million years. The first penguin fossil was discovered in New Zealand about 1849 and is now kept at the British Museum of Natural History. Since that time the fossils of many, now extinct, species have been discovered. Most of the extinct species were about the same size as the species living today. However two species were enormous, standing over 5 feet tall and weighing as much as 300 lbs.

Penguin fossils were discovered in Australia about 1888, but they were not reconized as being from penguins until 1957. Fossils were found in South America about 1891 and on Seymour Island, Antarctica in 1903 . All of the penguin fossils found in South America have been found in the southern part of Argentina and they all come from the same age (about 35 million years ago). Penguin fossils were not found in South Africa until 1970.

Below is a table (data from "Penguins: Past and Present, Here and There" by George Gaylord Simpson, 1976) showing the ages & locations of known fossil penguins.

Geological
Ages Approximate Years Location

Recent & Pleistocene 0-- 2,000,000 Scattered finds of recent species

Pliocene Late 2,000,000-- 3,500,000 South Island, New Zealand;
Cape Province, South Africa

Early 3,500,000-- 5,500,000

Miocene Late 5,500,000--12,000,000 Victoria, Australia

Middle 12,000,000--18,000,000

Early 18,000,000--25,000,000 Patagonia (Chubut and Santa Cruz), Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa

Oligocene Late 25,000,000--30,000,000 South Island, New Zealand;
South Australia

Middle 30,000,000--33,000,000 North and South Islands, New Zealand

Early 33,000,000--37,000,000 North and South Islands, New Zealand

Eocene Late 37,000,000--45,000,000 South Australia;
South Island, New Zealand;
Seymour Island, Antarctica

Middle 45,000,000--50,000,000 No known penguins earlier than late Eocene.

Early 50,000,000--55,000,000

Paleocene 55,000,000--65,000,000

Cretaceous 65,000,000-135,000,000

History of the Name
The name "penguin" was originally given to a bird that is now called the Great Auk (pictured at left). It was a large flightless bird with black and white markings. It was native to the North Atlantic ocean. (The great Auk has been extinct since 1844). When adventurers started exploring the southern oceans, they discovered more birds that resembled the northern "penguin" and called them penguins too. (As we still do today.)

Although it is not documented, it is believed that Portuguese sailors discovered the South African Blackfooted penguin as early as the 1480's. Ferdinand Magellan is credited with the first documented discovery of penguins, around 1500. The Megellanic penguin is named after him (actually, one book said the penguin is named after the Straits of Magellan, where they are found, not after the explorer).