Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 330, Issue 6006, Pages 954-957Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1193604
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [DEB-0949897, DEB-0949899]
- National Geographic Society Expeditions Council
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research [FA9550-09-1-0159]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0949899] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0949897] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Penguin feathers are highly modified in form and function, but there have been no fossils to inform their evolution. A giant penguin with feathers was recovered from the late Eocene (similar to 36 million years ago) of Peru. The fossil reveals that key feathering features, including undifferentiated primary wing feathers and broad body contour feather shafts, evolved early in the penguin lineage. Analyses of fossilized color-imparting melanosomes reveal that their dimensions were similar to those of non-penguin avian taxa and that the feathering may have been predominantly gray and reddish-brown. In contrast, the dark black-brown color of extant penguin feathers is generated by large, ellipsoidal melanosomes previously unknown for birds. The nanostructure of penguin feathers was thus modified after earlier macrostructural modifications of feather shape linked to aquatic flight.
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