Paleogene equatorial penguins challenge the proposed relationship between biogeography, diversity, and Cenozoic climate change
Julia A. Clarke,Daniel T. Ksepka,Marcelo Stucchi,Mario Urbina,Norberto P. Giannini,Norberto P. Giannini,Sara Bertelli,Sara Bertelli,Yanina Narváez,Clint A. Boyd +9 more
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TLDR
The most comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Sphenisciformes to date, combining morphological and molecular data, places the new species outside the extant penguin radiation (crown clade: Speniscidae) and supports two separate dispersals to equatorial regions during greenhouse earth conditions.Abstract:
New penguin fossils from the Eocene of Peru force a reevaluation of previous hypotheses regarding the causal role of climate change in penguin evolution. Repeatedly it has been proposed that penguins originated in high southern latitudes and arrived at equatorial regions relatively recently (e.g., 4–8 million years ago), well after the onset of latest Eocene/Oligocene global cooling and increases in polar ice volume. By contrast, new discoveries from the middle and late Eocene of Peru reveal that penguins invaded low latitudes >30 million years earlier than prior data suggested, during one of the warmest intervals of the Cenozoic. A diverse fauna includes two new species, here reported from two of the best exemplars of Paleogene penguins yet recovered. The most comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Sphenisciformes to date, combining morphological and molecular data, places the new species outside the extant penguin radiation (crown clade: Spheniscidae) and supports two separate dispersals to equatorial (paleolatitude ≈14°S) regions during greenhouse earth conditions. One new species, Perudyptes devriesi, is among the deepest divergences within Sphenisciformes. The second, Icadyptes salasi, is the most complete giant (>1.5 m standing height) penguin yet described. Both species provide critical information on early penguin cranial osteology, trends in penguin body size, and the evolution of the penguin flipper.read more
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A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing
Richard O. Prum,Richard O. Prum,Jacob S. Berv,Alex Dornburg,Alex Dornburg,Alex Dornburg,Daniel J. Field,Daniel J. Field,Jeffrey P. Townsend,Emily Moriarty Lemmon,Alan R. Lemmon +10 more
TL;DR: The results of the divergence time analyses are congruent with the palaeontological record, supporting a major radiation of crown birds in the wake of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) mass extinction.
Journal ArticleDOI
Testing the Impact of Calibration on Molecular Divergence Times Using a Fossil-Rich Group: The Case of Nothofagus (Fagales)
Hervé Sauquet,Simon Y. W. Ho,Simon Y. W. Ho,Maria A. Gandolfo,Gregory J. Jordan,Peter Wilf,David J. Cantrill,Michael J. Bayly,Lindell Bromham,Gillian K. Brown,Gillian K. Brown,Raymond J. Carpenter,Daphne M. Lee,Daniel J. Murphy,J. M. Kale Sniderman,Frank Udovicic +15 more
TL;DR: It is suggested that increased background research should be made at all stages of the calibration process to reduce errors wherever possible, from verifying the geochronological data on the fossils to critical reassessment of their phylogenetic position.
Journal ArticleDOI
Bayesian Total-Evidence Dating Reveals the Recent Crown Radiation of Penguins
Alexandra Gavryushkina,Tracy A. Heath,Daniel T. Ksepka,Tanja Stadler,David Welch,Alexei J. Drummond +5 more
TL;DR: The FBD model and a model of morphological trait evolution are incorporated into a Bayesian total‐evidence approach to dating species phylogenies and it is shown that including stem‐fossil diversity can greatly improve the estimates of the divergence times of crown taxa.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fossil Evidence for Evolution of the Shape and Color of Penguin Feathers
Julia A. Clarke,Daniel T. Ksepka,Daniel T. Ksepka,Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi,Ali J. Altamirano,Matthew D. Shawkey,Liliana D'Alba,Jakob Vinther,Thomas J. Devries,Patrice Baby +9 more
TL;DR: The fossil reveals that key feathering features, including undifferentiated primary wing feathers and broad body contour feather shafts, evolved early in the penguin lineage, and analyses of fossilized color-imparting melanosomes reveal that their dimensions were similar to those of non-penguin avian taxa and that the feathering may have been predominantly gray-brown.
Journal ArticleDOI
High flight costs, but low dive costs, in auks support the biomechanical hypothesis for flightlessness in penguins
Kyle H. Elliott,Robert E. Ricklefs,Anthony J. Gaston,Scott A. Hatch,John R. Speakman,John R. Speakman,Gail K. Davoren +6 more
TL;DR: The hypothesis that function constrains form in diving birds is supported, and that optimizing wing shape and form for wing-propelled diving leads to such high flight costs that flying ceases to be an option in larger wing- Propelled diving seabirds, including penguins.
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