Kairuku

Kairuku is an extinct genus of penguin. It contains three species, K. grebneffi, K. waitaki and K. waewaeroa. This taxon is known from bones from 27 MYA, from the Kokoamu Greensand Formation of New Zealand. It was historically referred to as Palaeeudyptes.

Kairuku

Tim Bertelink · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
SphenisciformesPBDB
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 least 9.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 36.7 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 39.1 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 9 of 10 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36.7 Mya27.3 Mya39.6 Mya22.5 Mya

10 occurrences of Kairuku on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

10 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

4 formations

Kokoamu Greensand — 44.87°S, 170.71°EKokoamu Greensand — 44.78°S, 170.95°EKokoamu Greensand — 44.85°S, 170.62°EGlen Massey — 37.49°S, 174.96°EGlen Massey — 38.13°S, 174.82°ERed Bluff Tuff — 43.83°S, 176.53°WOtekaike Limestone — 44.86°S, 170.62°E

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

Kairuku and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Kairuku and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

38 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Kairuku, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

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

3 references

Each of the 10 occurrences 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Kairuku

Credit
Tim Bertelink
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itSphenisciformes through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ksepka et al. 2012