this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
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Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.
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Also, those flightless aquatic birds most people call penguins are not actually that. Penguins are extinct.
Penguins are penguins. [citation not needed]
Penguins are not extinct. [1] [2] [3]
While it is true that great auks are extinct, and that the word "penguin" originally referred to them, the word possibly comes from Latin pinguis (fat) or Welsh pen gwyn (white head). [4]
Penguins do have fat, and some penguins have white heads, so the word applies to them just as much as it applies to great auks. [citation not needed]
The word "penguin" was used to refer to flightless aquatic birds of the order Sphenisciformes as early as the 16th century. [4]
Also, auks other than the great auk are not extinct. The closest living relative to the great auk is the razorbill, Alca torda, in the family Alcidae, the auks. Other auks include the little auk, the parakeet auklet, and the puffin.
You didn't watch the video 🤦 Wikipedia is not a superior source to an actual expert. And species are not categorized based on etymology (which wouldn't work here anyway as some "penguins" have all-black heads).
The video is from a PhD Biologist & Zoologist who has made a ton of content on the joys and challenges of phylogeny, and he clearly has a love for these creatures. It's worth a watch if you enjoy this stuff.
Yes, Great Auks were the original "penguins" and they lived in the northern hemisphere. He makes the point that those are more closely related to hummingbirds than they are to what we now call penguins. And the modern "false penguins" (to be a bit cheeky), which live almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, are more closely related to flamingos and other colorful flighted birds than they are to any auks.
So in terms of avian ancestry they are not even very closely related. So yeah, (original) penguins are extinct. Long live (new) penguins!
Nowhere did I claim that Sphenisciformes were related to Alcidae,
This debate boils down purely to word usage and prescriptivism vs descriptivism; which order/family of seabirds does the term "penguin" refer to? Who cares! This is entirely Argumentum ad Dictionarium!
I didn't consider it a debate in the first place, but yes, I'm aware of how the words have changed in their application. That seemed to be a central theme of the entire post 🤷
Ok, have a nice day
You too! And sorry, I just realized I actually posted the video in response to someone else. So big apologies if I came across as argumentative over something you might not have seen. My mistake 🫤