Scientists discover first new penguin species in more than 100 years

Antarctica's four-foot-tall Emperor penguin may be the best-known member of the penguin family, but it is far from alone. Seventeen other penguin species live across the Southern Hemisphere, and many inhabit isolated islands that are difficult for scientists to reach and study.

That remoteness may help explain how an entire species of gentoo penguin escaped recognition for so long. The birds live on the Kerguelen Islands, known in French as the Desolation Islands, nearly 2,000 miles from any permanently inhabited landmass. An international team led by researchers in Chile and at the University of California, Berkeley has now identified the population as a distinct species, making it the first new penguin species named in more than 100 years. The findings were published in Communications Biology .

Genetic evidence shows that what scientists once treated as a single, widely distributed gentoo penguin species is actually made up of four separate species.