Journal article
New miocene fossils and the history of penguins in Australia
T Park, EMG Fitzgerald, SJ Gallagher, E Tomkins, T Allan
Plos One | Published : 2016
Abstract
Australia has a fossil record of penguins reaching back to the Eocene, yet today is inhabited by just one breeding species, the little penguin Eudyptula minor. The description of recently collected penguin fossils from the re-dated upper Miocene Port Campbell Limestone of Portland (Victoria), in addition to reanalysis of previously described material, has allowed the Cenozoic history of penguins in Australia to be placed into a global context for the first time. Australian pre-Quaternary fossil penguins represent stem taxa phylogenetically disparate from each other and E. minor, implying multiple dispersals and extinctions. Late Eocene penguins from Australia are closest to contemporaneous t..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
Grant number: DP0558150, Australian Research Council, funder's website: www.arc.gov.au, author who received funding: SJG and ET. Funding was for fieldwork associated with geologic data collection and subsequent stratigraphic analyses only. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.