South American fossil penguins: a systematic update

ACOSTA HOSPITALECHE, C .; TAMBUSSI, C.

Oryctos

Oryctos

Año: 2008 vol. 7 p. 109 - 127

1290-4805

During the last years, we have worked in the systematics and paleobiology of the South American and Antarctic fossil penguins. As a result, we have achieved some knowledgements about their biodiversity in the past. Regarding to the South American fossil penguins, particularly the tertiarian ones, we can point out that based on phylogenetic and morphometric analyses practiced on skulls and appendicular skeleton, we recognized three non taxonomic groups, in agreement partially with the systematic scheme proposed by Simpson: Paraptenodytinae, Palaeospheniscinae and Spheniscinae. These species are recorded exclusively in South America and morphologically have more resemblance with the living species than the fossil penguins from others regions of the Southern Hemisphere. This suggests, in first instance, that the evolutionary and biogeographic history of the penguin fauna of Argentina, Chile and Peru would have followed different routes from those of Antarctica, New Zealand and Australia.