The genus Pygoscelis ("rump-legged") contains three living species of penguins collectively known as "The Brush-Tailed Penguins".^{[citation needed]} Their appearance - black above, white below - is the stereotypical image of penguins, and so what most people think of when they think of penguins.^{[citation needed]}

Taxonomy

Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA evidence suggests the genus split from other penguins around 38 million years ago, about 2 million years after the ancestors of the genus Aptenodytes. In turn, the Adelie Penguins split off from the other members of the genus around 19 million years ago.^[1]

The three extant species are:

• Adélie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae
• Chinstrap Penguin, Pygoscelis antarctica
• Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis papua

Extinct species:

• Pygoscelis grandis (Bahía Inglesa Formation, Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Bahía Inglesa, Chile)
• Pygoscelis calderensis (Bahía Inglesa Formation, Late Miocene of Bahía Inglesa, Chile)
• Pygoscelis tyreei (Pliocene of New Zealand)

The latter two are tentatively assigned to this genus.

Species photographs

Photographs of adult penguins of the extant (living) species:

• The three extant species of the genus
• 

  Chinstrap Penguin
  Pygoscelis antarctica

• 

  Gentoo Penguin
  Pygoscelis papua

• 

  Adélie Penguin
  Pygoscelis adeliae

References

This bird-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e