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The northern tip of Isabela crosses the equator, meaning that some Galápagos penguins live in the Northern Hemisphere, the only penguins to do so. Behavior A colony ...
The great auk of the Northern Hemisphere, now extinct, was superficially similar to penguins, and the word penguin was originally used for that bird centuries ago. They are only distantly related to the penguins, but are an example of convergent evolution. [59]
The great auk (Pinguinus impennis), also known as the penguin or garefowl, is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus. It is unrelated to the penguins of the Southern Hemisphere, which were named for their resemblance to this species.
Chinstrap penguin. Penguins are birds in the family Spheniscidae in the monotypic order Sphenisciformes. [1] They inhabit high-productivity marine habitats, almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere; the only species to occur north of the Equator is the Galapagos penguin.
They exhibited remarkable convergent evolution with the penguins, particularly with the now extinct giant penguins. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] That they lived in the North Pacific , the other side of the world from the penguins, has led to them being described at times as the Northern Hemisphere's penguins, though they were not closely related.
Nevertheless, they are not closely related to penguins, but rather are believed to be an example of moderate convergent evolution. Auks are monomorphic (males and females are similar in appearance). Extant auks range in size from the least auklet , at 85 g (3 oz) and 15 cm (5.9 in), to the thick-billed murre , at 1 kg (2.2 lb) and 45 cm (18 in).
Penguins evolved their wing structure to become more efficient underwater at the cost of their efficiency in the air. [ 28 ] The only known species of flightless bird in which wings completely disappeared was the gigantic, herbivorous moa of New Zealand , hunted to extinction by humans by the 15th century.
Sphenisciformes (from the Latin for "wedge-shaped") is the taxonomic order to which the penguins belong. BirdLife International has assessed 18 species. 16 (89% of total species) have had their population estimated: those missing are the king and little penguins , both of which have been assessed as being of least concern .