Anthropodyptes gilli Simpson, 1959

Park, Travis & Fitzgerald, Erich M. G., 2012, A review of Australian fossil penguins (Aves: Sphenisciformes), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 69, pp. 309-325 : 318-319

Anthropodyptes gilli Simpson, 1959

Holotype. Right humerus ( NMV P17167 ). ( Fig. 10 ; Table 2).

Type locality. Specimen was found as float on top of Miocene marl on east bank of Glenelg River at Devil’s Den , about 17 km NNW of Dartmoor, Victoria. Site is marked “Bw” on the map published by Singleton (1941: 46) (37°46'S, 141°14'E) .

Horizon and age. Gill (1959a) determined that NMV P17167 was derived from the Gellibrand Marl, which at this locality represents planktonic foram zones N5–N6, Early Miocene (Aquitanian–Burdigalian), 17.6–21.0 Ma ( Jenkins, 1974: 292; Abele et al., 1988:285; Dickinson et al., 2002).

Diagnosis. Simpson (1957: 118) notes that Anthropodyptes does not share any diagnostic characters with any previously named genus. Generic characteristics as follows: humerus slender and elongate; shaft slightly sigmoid, with moderate angulation of the cranial margin; the proximal part of the shaft is narrower than the distal part; fossa pneumotricipitalis undivided and large proximo-distally; m. supracoracoideus insertion wide and slightly oblique, almost parallel to long axis of the shaft; angle between long axis of shaft and tangent of condylus dorsalis and condylus ventralis is about 42°; the condylus ventralis is only slightly ventral to the condylus dorsalis; shelf adjacent to condylus ventralis smaller than condylus ventralis.

Remarks. This species is apparently most similar to Archaeospheniscus ( Gill, 1959b; Simpson, 1959: 118), a Late Oligocene New Zealand form. Based on synapomorphies, Anthropodyptes gilli has a most exclusive placement of clade 8 in the phylogenetic analysis of Ksepka and Clarke (2010: Fig. 21), giving it a more crown-ward position than earlier ‘giant’ forms from the late Eocene, but a similar phylogenetic position to late Oligocene giant forms such as Kairuku and Archaeospheniscus . Anthropodyptes gilli bears the distinction of being the latest surviving giant stem penguin, all other ‘giant’ stem taxa having a Palaeogene age (Ksepka and Clarke, 2010: 45). Comparisons of body proportions with other giant taxa are not possible until more complete material is found.

Figures

Figure 10. Anthropodyptes gilli holotype right humerus,NMV P17167: A, dorsal view; B, ventral view.