The extinct penguin

Penguin

Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...

 Palaeospheniscus wimani is a member of the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Palaeospheniscus which belonged to the prehistoric subfamily Palaeospheniscinae. It was the largest member of its genus, being just as large as the Magellanic Penguin

Magellanic Penguin

The Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus, is a South American penguin, breeding in coastal Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands, with some migrating to Brazil where they are occasionally seen as far north as Rio de Janeiro. It is the most numerous of the Spheniscus penguins. Its nearest...

 of today (to which it is quite unrelated).

A fairly large number of fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 bones has been found, some of which are tentatively assigned to this species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

. They are from the Early Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 of the Patagonian Molasse Formation. The specimens from known localities were collected near Trelew

Trelew

-References:La Pasión según Trelew, Espejo de la Argentina, 1997, Editorial Planeta Argentina S.A.I.C.; Third Edition: April 2000, Buenos Aires, ISBN 950-742-859-3-External links:* * * *...

 and Gaiman

Gaiman, Chubut

Gaiman is a town in the Chubut Province of Patagonia in Argentina. It has a population of about 6,000 as per the . It is located close to the River Chubut, about 15 km west of Trelew....

 in Chubut Province

Chubut Province

Chubut a province in the southern part of Argentina situated between the 42nd parallel south and the 46th parallel south , the Andes range separating Argentina from Chile, and the Atlantic ocean...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

.

As there is not much notable difference apart from size, this species is sometimes considered a synonym of Palaeospheniscus patagonicus

Palaeospheniscus patagonicus

Palaeospheniscus patagonicus is the type species of the penguin genus Palaeospheniscus, which is known from fossils. It stood about 65–75 cm high in life, roughly the size of an African Penguin....

.

Carl Wiman

Carl Wiman

Carl Wiman was a Swedish paleontologist and the first professor of paleontology at Uppsala University. He published on a variety of topics, including extinct penguins, and dinosaur fossils sent to Sweden from China and the San Juan Basin of New Mexico...

 is honored by the binomen

Binomen

In zoological nomenclature, a binomen , is the two-part name of a species. The term was introduced in 1953, abolishing the previously used "binomial name" . A binomen consists of a generic name and a specific epithet...

wimani. He was one of the foremost researcher of prehistoric penguins in the early 20th century.