Tertiary penguins from the north island of New Zealand

Abstract

Two new records of Oligocene penguin remains from southwest Auckland are added to the previously known occurrence (Marples and Fleming, 1963). All three are considered unidentifiable as to genus or species, but measurements of femora show that three separate species are represented, and from these and other bones it is probable that more than one genus is involved; comparative osteology also indicates that they are unlikely to have been conspecific with any of the described forms known from South Island localities, despite a similarity of facies. One specimen, the Glen Murray Penguin of Whaingaroan age, is one of the largest forms known, and it is of note that South Island forms of comparable size are of upper Eocene age, when conditions are believed to have been warmer than in the Oligocene. © 1973 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.