Fall Asleep While Learning About Penguins

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about penguins. Did you know that penguins are not found in the arctic? What about the interesting fact that there is a tiny species of penguin? No, you didn't know that? Well, that's ok--hopefully your dreams are filled with all the things you learn about penguins tonight.

Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome back,

Or welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

Penguin.

Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Sphenicity,

Of the order Spheniciformes.

They live almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere.

Only one species,

The Galapagos penguin,

Is found north of the equator.

Highly adapted for life in the ocean water,

Penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming.

Most penguins feed on krill,

Fish,

Squid,

And other forms of sea life,

Which they catch with their bills and swallow whole while swimming.

A penguin has a spiny tongue and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey.

They spend about half of their lives on land,

And the other half in the sea.

The largest living species is the emperor penguin.

On average,

Adults are about 1.

1 meter tall and weigh 35 kilograms.

The smallest penguin species is the little blue penguin,

Also known as the fairy penguin,

Which stands around 30 to 33 centimeters tall.

It weighs 1.

2 to 1.

3 kilograms.

Today,

Larger penguins generally inhabit colder regions,

And smaller penguins inhabit regions with temperate or tropical climates.

Some prehistoric penguin species were enormous,

As tall or heavy as an adult human.

There was a great diversity of species in sub-Antarctic regions,

And at least one giant species in a region around 2,

000 kilometers south of the equator 35 million years ago.

During the late Eocene,

A climate decidedly warmer than today.

The word penguin first appears in literature at the end of the 16th century as a synonym for the great auk.

When European explorers discovered what are today known as penguins in the southern hemisphere,

They noticed their similar appearance to the great auk of the northern hemisphere,

And named them after this bird,

Although they are not closely related.

The etymology of the word penguin is still debated.

The English word is not apparently of French,

Breton,

Or Spanish origin.

The latter two are attributed to the French word pingouin,

But first appears in English or Dutch.

Some dictionaries suggest a derivation from Welsh,

Pen,

Head,

And Gwyn,

White,

Including the Oxford English Dictionary,

The American Heritage Dictionary,

The Century Dictionary,

And Merriam-Webster,

On the basis that the name was originally applied to the great auk either because it was found on Whitehead Island,

Welsh,

Pen Gwyn,

In Newfoundland,

Or because it had white circles around its eyes,

Though the head was black.

An alternative etymology links the word to Latin pinguis,

Which means fat or oil.

Support for this etymology can be found in the alternative Germanic word for penguin,

Vetkans,

Or fatgoes,

And the related Dutch word vetkans.

Adult male penguins are sometimes called cocks,

Females sometimes called hens,

A group of penguins on land is a waddle,

And a group of penguins in the water is a raft.

Since 1871,

The Latin word pinguinus has been used in scientific classification to name the genus of the great auk,

Pinguinus impenis,

Meaning plump or fat without flight feathers,

Which became extinct in the mid-19th century.

As confirmed by a 2004 genetic study,

The genus pinguinus belongs in the family of the auks,

Within the order of the caradriiformes.

The birds currently known as penguins were discovered later and were so named by sailors because of their physical resemblance to the great auk.

Despite this resemblance,

However,

They are not auks and are not closely related to the great auk.

They do not belong to the genus pinguinus and are not classified in the same family and order as the great auk.

They were classified in 1831 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in several distinct genera,

Within the family Sphinicity and order Sphiniciformes.

The family name of Sphinicity was given by Charles Lucien Bonaparte from the genus Sphinicicus.

The name of that genus comes from the Greek word sphen,

Wedge,

Used for the shape of an African penguin's swimming flippers.

Some recent sources apply the phylogenetic taxon Sphinicity to what here is referred to as Sphinicity.

Furthermore,

They restrict the phylogenetic taxon Sphiniciformes to flightless taxa and establish the phylogenetic taxon Sphinicityformes as equivalent to the linean taxon Sphinicityformes,

I.

E.

,

Including any flying basal protopenguins to be discovered eventually.

Given that neither the relationships of the penguin subfamilies to each other,

Nor the placement of the penguins in the avian phylogeny is presently resolved,

This is confusing,

So the established linean system is followed here.

Although the evolutionary and biogeographic history of Sphinicityformes is well researched,

Many prehistoric forms are not fully described.

Some seminal articles about the evolutionary history of penguins have been published since 2005.

The basal penguins lived around the time of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event and the general area of southern New Zealand and birdland Antarctica.

Due to plate tectonics,

These areas were at the time less than 1500 km apart,

Rather than 4000 km.

The most recent common ancestor of penguins in Proselyria forms can be roughly dated to the Campanian-Mestritian boundary around 70-68 million years ago.

The oldest known fossil penguin species is Waimanu-Manaringi,

Which lived 62 million years ago in New Zealand.

While they were not as well adapted to aquatic life as modern penguins,

Waimanu were flightless,

With short wings adapted for deep diving.

They swam on the surface using mainly their feed,

But the wings were,

As opposed to most other diving birds,

Both living and extinct,

Already adapting to underwater locomotion.

Peridips from northern Peru was dated to 42 million years ago.

An unnamed fossil from Argentina proves that by the Bartonian Middle Eocene,

Some 39-38 million years ago,

Primitive penguins had spread to South America and were in the process of expanding into Atlantic waters.

During the Late Eocene and the Early Oligocene,

40-30 million years ago,

Some lineages of gigantic penguins existed.

Norden Stjeld's giant penguin was the tallest,

Growing nearly 1.

8 meters tall.

The New Zealand giant penguin was probably the heaviest,

Weighing 80 kilograms or more.

Both were found on New Zealand,

The former also in the Antarctic,

Farther eastwards.

Traditionally,

Most extinct species of penguins,

Giant or small,

Had been placed in the periphyletic subfamily called Piliodyptany.

More recently,

With Neutaxa being discovered and placed in the phylogeny,

If possible,

It is becoming accepted that there were at least two major extinct lineages.

One or two closely related ones occurred in Patagonia,

And at least one other,

Which is or includes the Piliodyptanes as recognized today,

Occurred on most Antarctic and sub-Antarctic coasts.

Size plasticity was significant at this initial stage of radiation.

On Seymour Island,

Antarctica,

For example,

Around 10 known species of penguins ranging in size from medium to large,

Apparently co-existed some 35 million years ago during the pre-Ebonian,

Late Eocene.

It is not known whether the Piliodyptanes constitute a monophyletic lineage,

Or whether gigantism was evolved independently in a restricted Piliodyptany and the Anthropomorphany,

Whether they were considered valid,

Or whether there was a wide size range present in Piliodyptany as delimited.

The oldest well-described giant penguin,

The 5-foot-tall Echidibsalaceae,

Existed as far north as northern Peru about 36 million years ago.

Gigantic penguins had disappeared by the end of the Paleogene,

Around 25 million years ago.

Their decline and disappearance coincided with the spread of the squalidontidae and other primitive fish-eating toothed whales,

Which competed with them for food and were ultimately more successful.

A new lineage,

The Periptenodites,

Which include smaller and stout-legged forms,

Had already arisen in southernmost South America by that time.

The early Neogenes saw the emergence of another morphotype in the same area,

The similarly sized but more gracile Polyosavicini,

As well as a radiation that gave rise to the current biodiversity of penguins.

Modern penguins constitute two undisputed clades and another two more basal genera,

With more ambiguous relationships.

To help resolve the evolution of this order,

19 high-coverage genomes that,

Together with two previously published genomes,

Encompass all extant penguin species,

Have been sequenced.

The origin of this phenicity lies probably in the latest Paleogene,

And geographically it must have been much the same as the general area in which the order evolved,

The oceans between the Australia-New Zealand region and the Antarctic.

Presumably diverging from other penguins about 40 million years ago,

It seems that this pheniceny were quite some time limited to their ancestral area,

As the well-researched deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia have not yielded Paleogene fossils of the subfamily.

Also,

The earliest pheniceny lineages are those with the most southern distribution.

The genus Septenodites appears to be the basal-most divergence among living penguins.

They have bright yellow-orange neck,

Breast,

And bill patches,

Incubate by placing their eggs on their feet,

And when they hatch,

The chicks are almost naked.

This genus has a very large,

Long-tailed pheniceny lineage,

And is the only genus in the world that is almost naked.

This genus has a distribution centered on the Antarctic coasts and barely extends to some sub-Antarctic islands today.

Hygocilus contains species with a fairly simple black and white head pattern.

Their distribution is intermediate,

Centered on Antarctic coasts,

But extending somewhat northwards from there.

In external morphology,

These apparently still resemble the common ancestor of this pheniceny,

As Septenodites' autopmorphies are,

In most cases,

Fairly pronounced adaptations related to that genus' extreme habitat conditions.

As the former genus,

Hygocilus seems to have diverged during the Bartonian,

But the range of expansion and radiation that led to the present-day diversity probably did not occur until much later,

Around the Bertigallian stage of the early Miocene,

Roughly 20-15 million years ago.

The genera Spheniscus and Eudyptula contain species with a mostly sub-Antarctic distribution,

Centered on South America.

Some,

However,

Range quite far northwards.

They all lack carotenoid coloration,

And the former genus has a conspicuous,

Banded head pattern.

They are unique among living penguins by nesting in burrows.

This group probably radiated eastwards,

With the Antarctic circumpolar current out of the ancestral range of modern penguins,

Throughout the Chechen Late Oligocene,

Starting approximately 28 million years ago.

While the two genera separated during this time,

The present-day diversity is the result of Pliocene radiation,

Taking place some 4-2 million years ago.

Although almost all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere,

They are not found only in cold climates such as Antarctica.

In fact,

Only a few species of penguin actually live so far south.

Several species live in the temperate zone.

One,

The Galapagos penguin,

Lives as far north as the Galapagos Islands,

But this is only made possible by the cold,

Rich waters of the Antarctic Humboldt current that flows around these islands.

Also,

Though the climate of the Arctic and Antarctic regions is similar,

There are no penguins found in the Arctic.

Several authors have suggested that penguins are a good example of Bergman's rule,

Where larger-bodied populations live at higher latitudes than smaller-bodied populations.

There is some disagreement about this,

And several other authors have noted that there are fossil penguin species that contradicted this hypothesis,

And that ocean currents and upwellings are likely to have had a greater effect on species diversity than latitude alone.

Major populations of penguins are found in Angola,

Antarctica,

Argentina,

And the Caribbean.

Australia,

Chile,

Namibia,

New Zealand,

And South Africa.

Satellite images and photos released in 2018 show the population of 2 million in France's remote Île-aux-Cochons has collapsed,

With barely 200,

000 remaining,

According to a study published in Antarctic Science.

Penguins have no special fear of humans,

And will often approach groups of people.

This is probably because penguins have no land predators in Antarctica or the nearby offshore islands.

In June 2011,

An emperor penguin came ashore on New Zealand's Pekepeke Beach,

3,

200 kilometers off course,

On his journey to Antarctica.

Nicknamed Happy Feet,

After the film of the same name,

It was suffering from heat exhaustion and had to undergo a number of operations to remove objects,

Like driftwood and sand,

From its stomach.

Happy Feet was a media sensation,

With extensive coverage on TV and the web.

Including a live stream that had thousands of views,

And a visit from English actor Stephen Fry.

Once he had recovered,

Happy Feet was released back into the water south of New Zealand.

Penguins are widely considered endearing for their unusually upright,

Waddling gait,

Swimming ability,

And,

Comparatively,

Waddling gait,

Swimming ability,

And,

Compared to other birds,

Lack of fear of humans.

Their black and white plumage is often likened to a white tie suit.

Some writers and artists have penguins based at the North Pole,

But there are no wild penguins in the Arctic.

The cartoon series Chilly Willy helped perpetuate this myth,

As the title penguin would interact with Arctic or sub-Arctic species,

Such as polar bears and walruses.

Penguins have been the subject of many books and films,

Such as Happy Feet,

Surf's Up,

And Penguins of Madagascar,

All CGI films.

March of the Penguins is a documentary based on the migration process of the emperor penguin.

And Farce of the Penguins,

A parody of the documentary.

Mr.

Popper's Penguins is a children's book written by Richard and Florence Atwater.

It was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1939.

Penguins have also appeared in a number of cartoons and television dramas,

Including Pingu,

Co-created by Atmar Goodman and Erica Brueggemann in 1990,

And covering more than 100 short episodes.

At the end of 2009,

Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade best-of list,

Saying,

Whether they were walking,

March of the Penguins,

Dancing,

Happy Feet,

Or hanging ten,

Surf's Up,

These oddly adorable birds took flight at the box office all decade long.

A video game called Pengo was released by Sega in 1982.

Set in Antarctica,

The player controls a penguin character who must navigate mazes of ice cubes.

The player is rewarded with cut scenes and animated penguins marching,

Dancing,

Saluting,

And playing peekaboo.

Several remakes and enhanced editions have followed,

Several remakes and enhanced editions have followed,

Most recently in 2012.

Penguins are also sometimes depicted in music.

In 1941,

DC Comics introduced the avian-themed character of the penguin as a supervillain adversary of the superhero Batman,

Detective Comics No.

58.

He became one of the most enduring enemies in Batman's rogue gallery.

In the 60s Batman TV series,

As played by Burgess Meredith,

He was one of the most popular characters,

And in Tim Burton's reimagining of the story,

The character played by Danny DeVito in the 1992 film Batman Returns,

Employed an actual army of penguins,

Mostly African penguins and king penguins.

Mostly African penguins and king penguins.

Several pro,

College,

And high school sports teams in the United States have named themselves after the species,

Including the Pittsburgh Penguins team in the National Hockey League and the Youngstown State Penguins in college athletics.

Penguins featured regularly in the cartoons of UK cartoonist Steve Bell in his trip in The Guardian newspaper,

Particularly during and following the Falklands War.

Opus the Penguin from the cartoons of Berkeley Breezed is also described as hailing from the Falklands.

Opus was a comical existentialist penguin character in the cartoons,

Bloom County,

Outland,

And Opus.

He was also the star in the animated Christmas TV special,

A Wish for Wings That Work.

Reviews

🥱 😴 who knew penguins 🐧 could be so boring… 🥱 😴💤💤💤