page_title: Crested penguin
section_title: Evolution
hierarchical_section_title: Crested penguin / Taxonomy / Evolution
caption_attribution_description: Miocene penguin Madrynornis mirandus gen. et sp. nov., MEF−PV 100 (holotype), Puerto Madryn Formation, early late Miocene, Playa Villarino, Península Valdés, Chubut Province, Argentina. Photo of the articulated skeleton before preparation.
context_page_description: The term crested penguin is the common name given collectively to species of penguins of the genus Eudyptes. The exact number of species in the genus varies between four and seven depending on the authority, and a Chatham Islands species became extinct in recent centuries. All are black and white penguins with yellow crests, red bills and eyes, and are found on Subantarctic islands in the world's southern oceans. All lay two eggs, but raise only one young per breeding season; the first egg laid is substantially smaller than the second.
context_section_description: Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA evidence suggests that the crested penguins split from the ancestors of their closest living relative, the yellow-eyed penguin, in the mid-Miocene around 15 million years ago, before splitting into separate species around 8 million years ago in the late Miocene.
  A fossil penguin genus, Madrynornis, has been identified as the closest known relative of the crested penguins. Found in late Miocene deposits dated to about 10 million years ago, it must have separated from the crested penguins around 12 million years ago. Given that the head ornamentation by yellow filoplumes seems plesiomorphic for the Eudyptes-Megadyptes lineage, Madrynornis probably had them too.
caption: Madrynornis fossil
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