Study of Old Penguin Bones Reveals a New Species

[Andrew Taylor <>]

Ms. Boessenkool and her colleagues were studying an endangered New
Zealand bird, the yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes), trying to
determine if it was naturally rare or had perhaps been more abundant in
the past. To do so they looked at living birds and museum specimens dating
back hundreds of years, including many from a part of New Zealand's
South Island where yellow-eyed penguins are no longer found.

But genetic analysis, as well as morphological evidence from bones,
pointed to a startling finding: the oldest specimens, from before the
arrival of Europeans in the 17th century, were different from more
recent birds. So different, the researchers report in The Proceedings
of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, that these oldest specimens
actually represent a new species, which they named Megadyptes waitaha.

Rest at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/science/25obpeng.html

Andrew