Palaeeudyptes gunnari

Palaeeudyptes gunnari is an extinct species of the extinct penguin genus Palaeeudyptes. It was a bit smaller than its congener Palaeeudyptes antarcticus of New Zealand, standing between 110 and 125 cm high, approximately the size of the emperor penguin. It is known from dozens of fossil bones from Middle or Late Eocene strata of the La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica. Initially, it was described as a separate genus, Eosphaeniscus. However, this was based on a single weathered and broken tarsometatarsus. Better material recovered later showed that the species belongs into the present genus.

Palaeeudyptes gunnari

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PalaeeudyptesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Sphenisciformes

Time the record covers

At least 3.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Eocene — about 10 of 10 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41.03 Mya37.71 Mya48.6 Mya33.4 Mya

10 occurrences of Palaeeudyptes gunnari on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

10 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

La Meseta — 64.29°S, 56.69°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.63°WSubmeseta — 64.25°S, 56.60°WLeticia — 54.45°S, 66.44°W

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The named rock units Palaeeudyptes gunnari has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Palaeeudyptes gunnari and its relatives

Eocene

Where Palaeeudyptes gunnari and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

58 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Palaeeudyptes gunnari, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

7 references

Each of the 10 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Palaeeudyptes gunnari

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Palaeeudyptes gunnari was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPalaeeudyptes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wiman 1905)