Aptenodytes ridgeni

Aptenodytes ridgeni, also referred to as Ridgen's penguin, is an extinct species of penguin from the Pliocene of New Zealand. It was intermediate in size between its living congeners, standing an estimated 90–100 cm tall. It is known from fossil bones, including complete leg bones, found at Motunau Beach, north of Christchurch, by 11-year-old Alan Ridgen in 1968.

Aptenodytes ridgeni

Craig Pemberton · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AptenodytesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Sphenisciformes

Time the record covers

At most 770 thousand years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.4 Mya and 1.63 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 0 of 1 occurrencePleistocene — about 1 of 1 occurrencePleistocene2.4–2.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.9 Mya1.13 Mya

1 occurrence of Aptenodytes ridgeni on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Greta Siltstone — 42.97°S, 173.09°E

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The named rock units Aptenodytes ridgeni has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Aptenodytes ridgeni and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aptenodytes ridgeni and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Aptenodytes ridgeni, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Aptenodytes ridgeni

Credit
Craig Pemberton
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aptenodytes ridgeni was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAptenodytes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Simpson 1972