page_title: Penguin
section_title: Living species and recent extinctions
hierarchical_section_title: Penguin / Systematics and evolution / Living species and recent extinctions
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: SVP, rendez cette description accessible à tous en la traduisant dans plusieurs langues. English: Please, have this description accessible to all by translating it in different languages. Français&#160;: Le Spheniscus magellanicus sur la Réserve Provinciale Cabo Virgenes English: The Spheniscus magellanicus at the Cabo Vírgenes Provincial Reserve, in southern Argentina.
context_page_description: Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, with only one species, the Galápagos penguin, found north of the equator. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch while swimming underwater. They spend roughly half of their lives on land and the other half in the sea.
  Although almost all penguin species are native to the Southern Hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate zone, but one species, the Galápagos penguin, lives near the equator.
  The largest living species is the emperor penguin: on average, adults are about 1.1 m tall and weigh 35 kg. The smallest penguin species is the little blue penguin, also known as the fairy penguin, which stands around 33 cm tall and weighs 1 kg. Among extant penguins, larger penguins inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are generally found in temperate or even tropical climates.
context_section_description: The number of extant penguin species is debated. Depending on which authority is followed, penguin biodiversity varies between 17 and 20 living species, all in the subfamily Spheniscinae. Some sources consider the white-flippered penguin a separate Eudyptula species, while others treat it as a subspecies of the little penguin; the actual situation seems to be more complicated. Similarly, it is still unclear whether the royal penguin is merely a colour morph of the macaroni penguin. The status of the rockhopper penguins is also unclear.
  Updated after Marples (1962), Acosta Hospitaleche (2004), and Ksepka et al. (2006).
  Subfamily Spheniscinae – modern penguins
caption: Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus). The closed neck collar denotes this species.
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