The Evolution of penguins By Gabriela Salas The

The Evolution of penguins By: Gabriela Salas

The history of penguins: ● It is believed that penguins have a history that is longer than 60 million years ago. ● It is believed that penguins descended from a bird that could fly at one point but had to adapt to it’s environment. ● According to paleontologist birds detached from reptiles about 200 million years ago. ● The wings of that bird changed over time and became what we know them as today flippers. ● The evolution of the penguins becoming flightless didn’t happen in the blink of an eye it happened over a long period of time. .

Ancestors: The most common ancestor that led to the modern penguin that we know today is about 20 million years old, according to the fossils that have been found. They began to emerge into different lineages in the ballpark of 11 million year to 16 million years ago. But a fossil was found that has disrupted the whole concept of the evolution of penguins, this fossil seems to look penguinish, because this fossil dates back to roughly 62 million years ago, it created a “GAP” in the evolution history of penguins. According to a paleontologist at the University of texas, penguins weren’t always white and black they used to have a reddish brown or gray hair.

Climate over time: According to well recorded there was a climate change about 12 million year ago in Antarctica, through the means of Natural Selections some penguins were able to withstand the new climate, but others needed to adapt to their new environment. Based on this climate change scientists have concluded that penguins used to live in low latitudes, like antarctica and then moved to higher latitudes like the galapagos islands. Today we know that the antarctic is freezing cold, for our little furry friends is must have been centuries till they were able to adapt to where they can withstand the ICY Air of the antarctic.

Adaptations over time:

Cladogram of the relatives of the modern penguin:

Evolution over the years: Over the years penguins have gotten shorter in size, they have also gotten smaller beaks. Not only have they changed in appearance they have also changed in habitat, penguins have been from place to place as you have seen a couple slides back. Once the settled in Antarctica they needed to adapt to the extremely cold weather for the Arctic. There are many gaps and holes to the history of how penguins evolved, but one thing is for sure they have evolved drastically over time. Variation has helped penguins survive over time because there are some qualities in some penguins that help be able to live a better life than the rest, since those penguins were able to adapt to their environment they were able to reproduce and pass on their genes and keep the population going.

Work cited: http: //earthsky. org/earth/penguin-ancestors-didnt-wear-black-and-white https: //evolution-institute. org/article/penguin-evolution-reworked/ http: //www. pinguins. info/Engels/Evo_eng. html Google images