the.com/penguin
a bird that traded the sky for tuxedos and 20-knot underwater barrel rolls
means A flightless seabird of the Southern Hemisphere with black-and-white plumage and flipper-like wings, built for swimming rather than flying.
from The name is genuinely murky. The favorite theory traces it to Welsh 'pen gwyn,' meaning 'white head' — but the catch is that the bird originally called 'penguin' was the great auk of the North Atlantic, a now-extinct flightless seabird that sailors lumped together with these southern lookalikes. Some doubt the Welsh story (the auk's head was mostly black) and propose Latin 'pinguis,' 'fat,' for its plump build. The honest answer: the word was applied to the auk first, the southern birds inherited it by resemblance, and the precise root remains debated.
- speed swimmer
- Some species hit 22 mph underwater
- pebble proposals
- Males court mates with carefully chosen stones
- warm feet
- Special arteries keep feet just above freezing
- ancient giants
- Extinct penguins stood as tall as humans
- salt glands
- They drink seawater and sneeze out the salt
emperor penguin — largest penguin species, found in antarctica, can dive deeper than 500 meters
african penguin — only penguin species breeding on african continent, critically endangered with fewer than 41,000 breeding pairs
little penguin — smallest penguin species at 43 cm tall, native to southern australia and new zealand