By 60-55 million years ago penguins were well adapted to life at sea. Not only were there roughly 40 species, more than twice the number today, but they also grew to be much larger sizes. The heaviest of these penguins, Kumimanu fordycei, lived 60 million years ago along the shores of what is now New Zealand. At roughly 350 pounds this massive penguin was about the size of a small bear. Its wings were still primitive flippers more similar to today's puffins, indicating it still retained some remnants of its flying ancestors. Tuxedoed birds with endearing personalities, penguins are fascinating to young and old alike. Clumsy and comical on land, they become beautifully graceful swimmers below the ocean’s waves. Although the various species of penguins look similar, the largest penguin, the emperor, stands at 4 foot, 5 inches (1.35 meters) and the smallest penguin, the fairy or little, stands at about a foot tall (.33 meters). Adélie ( Pygoscelis adeliae)- The Adélie penguin is one of two penguins to nest exclusively on Antarctic shores, the only other penguin to do so is the formidable emperor penguin. An ice-dependent species, they rely on the ice for foraging, often trapping prey under ice floes (sheets of ice that jigsaw the ocean surface) and resting on top of them to avoid predators. Populations are on the decline on the northern Antarctic Peninsula, where air temperatures significantly increased in the latter half of the 20th century due to climate change. Breeding season begins in October, with eggs hatching after 35 days of incubation. They rely heavily on Antarctic krill but also eat fish, crustaceans, and other krill species. The birds stand at 27 inches (70 cm) and weigh up to 12 pounds (6.5 kg). The movie Oddball features a little penguin and its canine protectors, based on the Maremma dogs of Middle Island. Penguins rely on krill, anchovy, and sardines to survive but human fishing of these food web pillars has significantly impacted penguin population sizes.

A group of oiled penguins on the Eastern shore of South Africa's Robben Island. The penguins were contaminated by a spill off the island's coast. Whether you go for something humorous or a story that’s inspiring, we hope that you found this list of books about penguins useful and that your young readers will love them too.Three Adélie juvenile penguins lose their baby feathers in February by Palmer Station, Antarctica. (Danielle Hall) Each morning, little penguins will leave their burrow to spend the day fishing at sea. Over the day, they’ll travel up to 20km in search of fish, cephalopods and crustaceans. After dusk, they return home in “rafts” and scurry across the beach in a “penguin parade”. A tornado of sardines swirls around diver and photographer Erwin Poliakoff in the Philippines. (Erwin Poliakoff) Blue Penguin is just like the other penguins, except he’s blue, and the other penguins don’t think he’s the same as them. Blue Penguin is left all alone. Can he think of a way to convince the other penguins that he’s like them, after all?

A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in technology today.” —Bill Gates, from the foreword For penguin species living in Antarctica, climbing temperatures due to climate change may be altering their living environment at a rate too fast for penguins to adapt. A study released in June 2016 predicts that by the end of the 21st century roughly 60 percent of Adélie penguin colonies in Antarctica will be decreasing in size because of changing climate. Another study predicts emperor penguin populations will also decline on average by about 19 percent during the same timeframe—with two thirds of the 45 known colonies experiencing declines greater than 50 percent. The colony featured in The March of the Penguins is one such colony. Experts warn at this rate the species could be headed for extinction. King penguins forage for fish at the Antarctic Polar Front – a region rich in tasty lanternfish, the kings’ preferred food. They will dive up to 100 times per day, reaching speeds of 12km/h in pursuit of a meal. King penguins have been observed diving to depths greater than 300m, and in excess of nine minutes.

Cultural Connections

One penguin delivered to your doorstep is cute (if not strange), two is a coincidence, but three, four, five? For this family, a penguin is delivered to their house every day for a year. And as the penguins pile up, so do the family’s problems. Just feeding the penguins becomes a monumental task - and that’s not to mention how smelly they are… This book is sure to be a hit with your children. King penguins are the second-largest penguin species (after emperor penguins), measuring up to one metre tall. But kings are more eye-catching, with vivid markings reminiscent of a tropical sunset. Around the same time period—but farther north—the Peruvian giant, Icadyptes salasi, stood at a slightly shorter 5 feet. This giant supported a unique 7 inch beak that is theorized to have been helpful in spearing fish. The discovery of this fossil upended previous conceptions about the equatorial migration of penguins. It was thought that penguins migrated north towards the equator after periods of Earth cooling like that which occurred during the Eocene-Oligocene (around 34 million years ago) and a later cooling period 15 million years ago. But the earlier migration of Icadyptes indicates penguins actually migrated during a time of significant warming.

Charles Chilton's classic radio sci-fi series Journey into Space thrilled listeners between 1953 and 1958, attracting almost eight million people to its gripping tale of the far future and the thrills of interstellar travel - the last radio programme in the UK to attract a bigger evening audience than television. Yellow-Eyed ( Megadyptes antipodes)- Yellow-eyed penguins are the most private of all penguins, preferring to nest out of sight from other penguins. They often forgo parental duties if they are within eyesight of other nesting couples. For this reason they often nest among the tree trunks of the dwarf rata forests on the islands off of New Zealand where they are native. The breeding season is particularly long, lasting from August to February. Egg incubation alone can take up to two months. They weigh between 5 and 5.5 pounds (2.3-2.5 kg) and reach heights of 65 cm (25 inches). Penguins need to see clearly both on land and underwater. Terrestrial animals, including humans, rely on the cornea—the clear outer layer of the eye—to focus images using a property called refraction, a bending of light as it crosses through different materials. As light travels through the air and enters the eye, it bends to the appropriate angle and creates a focused image on the retina. Underwater, terrestrial animals become far-sighted because the fluid of the eye and the water are too similar, so the light doesn’t bend enough and the image doesn’t focus effectively. Penguins solve this problem with a flattened cornea and highly modified lens. Their flattened corneas have less refractive power than those of terrestrial animals, enabling them to see clearly underwater. Their spherical lenses can compensate for the flatter cornea by also bending the light. Casual readers who know Microsoft primarily for Windows, Office and maybe Xbox will be surprised by the level of insight Smith brings to some of the biggest issues facing not just the industry but humanity. [ Tools and Weapons] is written for a mass market, not just tech and policy wonks. It offers a framework for everyday readers to understand and think about the implications of powerful new forms of technology. . . . It’s full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, from internal Microsoft meetings to high-level sessions at the Obama and Trump White Houses. It makes ample use of historical references to put modern trends and technologies in context.”— GeekWireThere are over 30 colonies of king penguins on South Georgia Island in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. The penguins capture their prey, typically lanternfish, by diving at speeds of 12 miles per hour. (Steve Gould/Nature's Best Photography) Although feathers can be fluffed up or flattened down, penguins also use other methods to keep their temperatures at the right level. When an Adélie penguin overheats it diverts blood to its thin wings, causing the white undersides to turn a faint pink color. When cold, penguins rely on countercurrent exchange to warm up, a specific heat transferring mechanism that exchanges heat from warm blood traveling in vessels towards their legs and feet to colder blood leaving the area. Senses

The earliest known penguins evolved shortly after the demise of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction. Roughly 66 million years ago species from the genus Waimanu lived in the waters off of New Zealand. The two species of Waimanu penguins are currently considered the basal ancestors, meaning they are considered the earliest common ancestor of all penguins. Flightless like modern penguins, Waimanu penguins still maintained anatomical similarities to flying birds and may have had swimming capabilities similar to a loon or cormorant. Their beaks were long and slender and their legs were slightly larger than the modern penguins. The discovery of these ancient penguins was based on an analysis of four separate specimens from North Canterbury, New Zealand that are some of the best-preserved avian fossils from that era. It was these specimens that supplied evidence for the theory that penguins split from other birds before the end of the Cretaceous epoch. An image of the cover of the Mr. Poppin's Penguins novel. (Little, Brown Young Readers Publishing ) Contrary to popular belief, only five penguin species ever set foot on the icy Antarctic continent and only two, the Adélie and emperor, live there exclusively. In fact, penguins inhabit a very diverse array of environments. The Humboldt penguin of Chile and Peru lives on the shores of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world where temperatures can reach around 70°F (21°C). The yellow-eyed penguins of Enderby Island off New Zealand burrow under the trees of the dwarf rata forests. Each penguin species is uniquely adapted to its home environment. Penguins thrived as flightless birds, in part because in the Southern Hemisphere there are few terrestrial predators like the foxes and badgers of the Northern Hemisphere. Human introduced animals, like dogs, cats and foxes are problems since the animals often eat penguin eggs, harass breeding pairs, or outright kill penguins.Sea Secrets: Tiny Clues to a Big Mystery by Mary M. Cerullo and Beth Simmons, illustrated by Kirsten Carlson (ages 5-10) In the Australian realm, macaroni penguins are found on Heard Island and McDonaldIslands. Although macaroni penguins are the most numerous penguin species in the world, their numbers are declining. Scientists aren’t sure exactly why, but climate change may be affecting the abundance and distribution of their favoured prey. Industrial fishing for finfish and krill is another potential factor. Adélie penguin Macaroni ( Eudyptes chrysolophus)- Macaroni penguins are the most abundant of all the penguins. The most southerly distributed crested penguin, they live along the coasts of sub-Antarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. The lifespan of a Macaroni penguin spans from 8 to 15 years. Macaroni prefer krill but will also eat small fish and squid. They are roughly 27.5 inches (70 cm) in height and between 8 to 14 pounds (3.7-6.4 kg) in weight. Feather color is another indicator of male health. Birds in general display the health of their immune systems in what is called an honest signal. Color for feathers is costly since the yellow orange pigments, carotenoids, are also used within the immune system to fight infection. Bright plumage means a healthy bird. However, historically this principle was found in sexually dimorphic birds, where males and females are physically different. Penguins are monomorphic, it’s even difficult for experts to tell the sexes apart. Even so, experiments where king penguin plumage was altered showed that the altered feather colors significantly reduced the ability of males to pair with a mate but not females.