Scientists have discovered a brand-new species of penguin — marking the first newly named species of the aquatic bird in over a century.
Dubbed the southeastern gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis kerguelensis), the bird makes its home on the subantarctic Kerguelen and Heard Islands in the southern Indian Ocean.
It was formally recognized as a distinct species after an exhaustive genomic, morphological, and ecological study led by an international team of researchers.
The team of 22 scientists — hailing from the US and Chile — published their landmark findings last April in the journal Communications Biology.
The southeastern gentoo looks identical to other gentoos, which are split across four variations: northern, southern, eastern, and southeastern.
For generations, gentoo penguins were classified as a single widespread species.
However, the breakthrough study proves gentoos actually comprise four separate species: the northern gentoo (P. papua), southern gentoo (P. ellsworthi), eastern gentoo (P. taeniata), and southeastern gentoo (P. kerguelensis).
“There’s probably no species of penguin where the taxonomy has been more debated than the gentoo penguin,” said Rauri Bowie, a curator and professor at UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
“For over 100 years it’s been controversial as to how many species or how many subspecies there are. What this paper does is try to address that question using cutting-edge integrative approaches.”
Researchers contend that the gentoos’ flexible diet indirectly fueled their evolutionary split.
Because the birds gladly feast on whatever prey is nearby — including fish, krill, squid, and cuttlefish — they stick close to home and nest in the same spots year after year rather than migrating.
As a result, isolated island populations developed distinct behavioral and ecological habits that locked in genetically over time.
Combined with geographical isolation and the ocean barrier of the Antarctic Polar Front, this lifestyle drove the creation of new species over the last 300,000 to 500,000 years, according to the team.
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