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a little more info
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'''Penguins''' are 21 species of flightless [[bird]]s inhabiting the cold waters of the [[Southern Hemisphere]], the most highly-specialized of any aquatic bird.
==Entymology==
Penguins were discovered with the great explorations of the 16th century, as European sailors pushed southward into the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. The first species of penguin they may have encountered was the gentoo penguin (''Pygoscelis papua''), which inhabits Patagonia, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. The similarity in shape, habits, and coloration to a bird they had already known as the penguin - the extinct [[great auk]] (''Pinguinus impennis'') - was striking, hence the transfer of the name. The word is possibly based upon the Welsh ''pen gwyn''<ref>http://www.english-for-students.com/Penguin.html#chitika_close_button</ref>, referring to the white eye patch on the head of the auk; or upon ''pin-wing'', in reference to both bird's rudimentary wings.
==Description==
Penguins are bulky birds in relation to their size. Depending on the species, they are between 16 and 48 inches in length. When standing, they have a fully-erect posture; when moving about, they either walk in a comically-awkward gait or they "toboggan", i.e. they slide on their bellies when on the ice, using feet and wings to push them along. While at sea, however, penguins use their wings to move about effortlessly, swimming in excess of twenty knots.
Coloration is similar to not just the great auk, but to [[orcas]] and several species of [[shark]], in that they are dark above, and white below; the pattern is camouflage, making them disappear in the dark depths of the sea when viewed from above, or blend in with the light patterns of the surface when viewed from below.
===Phylogeny===
===Phylogeny===
*Family Spheniscidae
*Family Spheniscidae