Plotopterids: Giant False Penguins of the Pacific

Please enjoy this video examining the Plotopterids, a family of large, flightless seabirds that displayed many traits convergent with penguins but were close relatives of modern cormorants, anhinga and gannets. https://www.patreon.com/c/DrPolaris Thumbnail art by Mark Witton Sources used for this video: Dyke, G. J.; Wang, X.; Habib, M. B. (2011). "Fossil Plotopterid Seabirds from the Eo-Oligocene of the Olympic Peninsula (Washington State, USA): Descriptions and Functional Morphology". PLOS ONE. 6 (10) e25672. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...625672D. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025672. PMC 3204969. PMID 22065992. Kawabe, Soichiro; Ando, Tatsuro; Endo, Hideki (2014). "Enigmatic affinity in the brain morphology between plotopterids and penguins, with a comprehensive comparison among water birds". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 170 (3): 467–493. doi:10.1111/zoj.12072. ISSN 1096-3642. Kayser, G.; Watanabe, J.; Johns, M. (2015). "A new member of the family Plotopteridae (Aves) from the late Oligocene of British Columbia, Canada". Palaeontologia Electronica. 18.3.52A: 1–18. doi:10.26879/563. Mayr, Gerald; Goedert, James L.; Vogel, Olaf (2015-07-04). "Oligocene plotopterid skulls from western North America and their bearing on the phylogenetic affinities of these penguin-like seabirds". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 35 (4) e943764. Bibcode:2015JVPal..35E3764M. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.943764. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 83729696. Mayr, G.; Goedert, J. L.; Vogel, O. (2016). "New late Eocene and Oligocene remains of the flightless, penguin-like plotopterids (Aves, Plotopteridae) from western Washington State, U.S.A.". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 36 (4) e1163573. Bibcode:2016JVPal..36E3573M. doi:10.1080/02724634.2016.1163573. S2CID 88129671. Mayr, G.; Goedert, J. (2021). "New late Eocene and Oligocene plotopterid fossils from Washington State (USA), with a revision of "Tonsala" buchanani (Aves, Plotopteridae)". Journal of Paleontology. (e1163573) online preview: 224–236. doi:10.1017/jpa.2021.81. S2CID 240582610. Mayr, Gerald; Goedert, James L.; Pietri, Vanesa L. De; Scofield, R. Paul (2021). "Comparative osteology of the penguin-like mid-Cenozoic Plotopteridae and the earliest true fossil penguins, with comments on the origins of wing-propelled diving". Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 59 (1): 264–276. doi:10.1111/jzs.12400. ISSN 1439-0469. Mori, Hirotsugu; Miyata, Kazunori (2021). "Early Plotopteridae Specimens (Aves) from the Itanoura and Kakinoura Formations (Latest Eocene to Early Oligocene), Saikai, Nagasaki Prefecture, Western Japan". Paleontological Research. 25 (2): 145–159. Bibcode:2021PalRe..25.R018M. doi:10.2517/2020PR018. ISSN 1342-8144. S2CID 233029559. Olson, S.L.; Hasegawa, Y. (1996). "A New Genus and Two New Species of Gigantic Plotopteridae from Japan (Aves: Pelecaniformes)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 16 (4): 742–751. Bibcode:1996JVPal..16..742O. doi:10.1080/02724634.1996.10011362. Warheit, K.I. (1992). "A Review of the Fossil Seabirds from the Tertiary of the North Pacific: PlateTectonics, Paleoceanography, and Faunal Change". Paleobiology. 18 (4): 401–424. doi:10.1017/S0094837300010976. S2CID 130150919.