Hunter Island penguin


The Hunter Island penguin is an extinct penguin, subfossil remains of which were found in a Holocene Aboriginal midden at Stockyard Site on Hunter Island, in Bass Strait 5 km off the western end of the north coast of Tasmania, Australia. The remains were estimated by radiocarbon dating to be about 760 ± 70 years old. The validity of the taxon has subsequently been questioned because of the fragmentary nature of the fossils, the lack of distinguishability of some of them from Eudyptes, and their origin in different stratigraphic layers of the midden. Subsequent DNA tests of the material assigned to Tasidyptes hunteri showed that the material itself belonged to three different penguin species, the Fiordland crested penguin, Snares crested penguin, and fairy penguin.