Hunter Island penguin

The Hunter Island penguin (Tasidyptes hunteri) is an extinct penguin, subfossil remains of which were found in a Holocene Aboriginal midden at Stockyard Site on Hunter Island, in Bass Strait 5 km off the western end of the north coast of Tasmania, Australia.[1] The remains were estimated by radiocarbon dating to be about 760 ± 70 years old. The validity of the taxon has subsequently been questioned because of the fragmentary nature of the fossils, the lack of distinguishability of some of them from Eudyptes, and their origin in different stratigraphic layers of the midden.[2] Subsequent DNA tests of the material assigned to Tasidyptes hunteri showed that the material itself belonged to three different penguin species, the Fiordland crested penguin, Snares crested penguin, and fairy penguin.[3]

Hunter Island penguin
Temporal range: Holocene
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Sphenisciformes
Family: Spheniscidae
Genus: †Tasidyptes
Van Tets & O’Connor, 1983
Type species
Tasidyptes hunteri
van Tets & O’Connor, 1983

References
  1. Tets, GF van; O'Connor, S (1983). "The Hunter Island Penguin; An Extinct New Genus and Species from a Tasmanian Midden". Records of the Queen Victoria Museum. 81: 1–13.
  2. Park, Travis; Fitzgerald, Erich MD (2012). "A Review of Australian Fossil Penguins (Aves: Sphenisciformes)" (PDF). Memoirs of Museum Victoria. 69: 309–325.
  3. Theresa L Cole, Jonathan M Waters, Lara D Shepherd, Nicolas J Rawlence, Leo Joseph, Jamie R Wood; Ancient DNA reveals that the ‘extinct’ Hunter Island penguin (Tasidyptes hunteri) is not a distinct taxon. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlx043, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx043


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