Overview of the Spheniscidae Penguin Family

The family Spheniscidae is made up of penguins, which are flightless birds, confined almost entirely below the equator (Williams, Wilson, Boersma, Stokes, Davies, & Busby, 1995, pg. 3). Penguins belong to the Chordata order, which gets its name because the organisms have notochords. Notochords are a supporting structure much like a backbone. Another characteristic of the family is that they are filter feeders, which means they can pass water through their mouths and anterior end of the digestive tracts. Penguins belong to the Aves class (Parker, 1982 pg. 822). When thinking of birds some characteristics that come to mind are feathers, wings, the ability to lay eggs, and two legs. Penguins fit all of these criteria and yet their distinguishing characteristics are extensive. For example, their wings are flippers, adapted in order to help them hunt and catch their food. Penguins are the only birds with actual flippers (Kooyman, 2013 pg. 4). In addition to this, the angle at which penguins femurs extend from the hip is twice that of other birds, giving them a human-like posture. Another distinguishing characteristic of the penguin is the tarsometatarus, a bone found only in birds. Penguins have a particularly small tarsometatarus, which is used as an indicator when identifying skeletal remains (Kooyman, 2013, pg. 1). Penguins are divers capable of diving to great depths in order to catch their prey. Although on average, penguins dive much below their potential, feeding in relatively shallow water (Davis & Renner, 2003, pg. 66). According to researchers, some penguins have the potential to dive as deep as 535 meters, about five football fields (Grzimek, Jackson, & Schlager, 2002, pg. 147). While researching I have found dissent...

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