Penguins are a very familiar bird species, whether as pets in aquariums or as the image on QQ, we can often see them in our lives. Penguins are very special birds, they have lost the ability to fly, excel at swimming, and have a distinctive appearance and cute behavior. They also slide on their bellies on the ice, so most people have forgotten that this fat and cute animal is actually a bird that cannot fly.

Currently, there are nearly twenty extant penguin species, most of which live in Antarctica, and a few are distributed inSouth America, Africa, and Oceania

The northernmost penguin distribution isGalapagos penguin Spheniscus mendiculuswhich lives on the Galapagos Islands in Central America, where the equator passes through, so the Galapagos penguin is the only one that may appear in the Northern Hemisphere

We often see penguins in zoos and aquariums, such as Emperor penguins, King penguins, Magellanic penguins, Rockhopper penguins, and Papuan penguinsetc.Papuan penguin Pygoscelis papua

The earliest holder of the name 'Penguin'

Let's take a look at the Papuan penguin in the picture above, because we will now introduce a penguin that lives in the Arctic 'Penguin'

As we all know, the English name of penguins is

Penguinbut this name is not unique to them, but rather taken by another bird species. This bird species' Chinese name isSea diver Pinguinus impennisIt was the earliest to have the English name 'Penguin', and as can be seen from the genus name of the sea diver, Pinguinus, it is closely related to the word 'Penguin'That is, 'Penguin' was the original English name of the sea diver (French is Pingouin, German is Pinguine, the pronunciation is similar), but later it was taken by penguins, so that whenever someone says 'Penguin', everyone will think of penguins, and few people know about the sea diver

Let's take a look at the sea diver first

Pinguinus impennis

Don't you think it's similar to penguins?

In fact, people discovered the sea diver was found much earlier than the penguin, because the Arctic may be

human settlementand the human settlement area is located on the same continent. However, Antarctica is different, Antarctica is lying alone at the southern end of the earth, here there has never been human settlement, and there are few plant and animal species, so penguins were discovered laterAs early as the 16th century, Europeans already knew this bird that cannot fly. Its depiction can also be found in European woodcuts and literature. In 1758, Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, named the sea diver as

Alca impennisIn 1791, it was changed to Pinguinus impennisUria lomvia

Name change history

In the 19th century, a French sailor discovered penguins in Antarctica, discovered that they cannot fly, and that they are similar in appearance to the sea diver, so they thought they were relatives of the sea diver, so they also called them

PingouinIt was passed to English and gradually evolved into 'Penguin'Now we know that penguins and sea divers are similar in appearance because of

convergent evolutionbut at that time they didn't know it, because early taxonomy was based onmorphologyif two animals look similar, they will easily be classified together. Now, a more advanced classification method is based ongene sequencingand phylogenetic systematics, which is more scientific and reasonable than morphological distinctionAfter the French discovered the penguins in Antarctica, they corrected the name of the penguins, no longer called 'Penguin', but used a special name

ManchotHowever, in English countries, they still called it 'Penguin' and used it until nowAlca torda

The tragedy of the sea diver

Not only that, after penguins became famous worldwide with their adorable appearance and cute behavior, they were also renamed to distinguish themselves

Great aukFrom then on, 'Penguin' became the exclusive name of penguins, and few people know about the sea diverNow we know that they are similar in appearance because of

convergent evolutionbut at that time they didn't know it, because early taxonomy was based onmorphology

now a more advanced classification method is based on

gene sequencing

and phylogenetic systematics, which is more scientific and reasonable than morphological distinction

The sea diver's tragedy did not stop until it was deprived of its name by penguins. The sea diver went extinct because

thick fur and waterproof cold resistance, and delicious meat

It was frantically hunted by people in 1844, June 3rd, the last pair of sea divers were killed on Iceland, marking the extinction of the speciesNow there are still sea diver species belonging to theshearwater orderwhich live in marine environments. Most of them have thick beaks, are good at swimming and fishing, which is similar to penguins. However, sea divers can fly and have greater flexibility on landHowever, sea divers mostly spend their lives floating in the sea, eating and sleeping in the sea, they only return to the shore during the breeding periodwhich can greatly escape human captureThe sea diver was extinct because it couldn't fly and had curiosity towards humans

I hope that people today can treat these cute wild animals wellPapua penguin Cerorhinca monocerataPandaRed pandaLesser panda

Ailurus fulgens

Panda

“”

Tadorna ferruginea

Cerorhinca monocerata