Palaeospheniscus

Palaeospheniscus is an extinct genus of penguins belonging to the subfamily Palaeospheniscinae. These penguins are apparently not closely related to the modern genus Spheniscus.

Palaeospheniscus

Hectonichus · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. 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
PalaeospheniscinaePBDB
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 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 20.45 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiocene — about 20 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 22 occurrencesPliocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.1–4.5 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.5–3.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.8–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20.45 Mya5.333 Mya23.5 Mya3.1 Mya

22 occurrences of Palaeospheniscus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

22 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

7 formations

Gaiman — 43.30°S, 65.42°WGaiman — 43.33°S, 65.32°WGaiman — 43.28°S, 65.48°WGaiman — 43.44°S, 65.10°WPatagonian — 46.21°S, 67.58°WMonte Leon — 49.53°S, 68.36°WVarswater — 33.67°S, 18.43°EChilcatay — 14.62°S, 75.63°WPuerto Madryn — 42.77°S, 65.10°WSarmiento — 43.30°S, 65.42°W

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The named rock units Palaeospheniscus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeospheniscus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Palaeospheniscus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

148 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Palaeospheniscus, 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

12 references

Each of the 22 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 Palaeospheniscus

Credit
Hectonichus
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeospheniscus 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 itPalaeospheniscinae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Moreno and Mercerat 1891