Pachydyptes

Pachydyptes is an extinct genus of penguin. It contains the single species Pachydyptes ponderosus, the New Zealand Giant Penguin. This taxon is known from a few bones from Late Eocene (34 to 37 MYA) rocks in the area of Otago, and a fine specimen found near Kawhia, New Zealand, in January 2006.

With a height of 140 to 160 cm (about 5 ft) and weighing around 80 to possibly over 100 kg, it was the second-tallest penguin ever, surpassed only by Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi in size, but probably not in weight. As George Gaylord Simpson famously quipped, "Pachydyptes' height would not suffice for basketball but their weight was about right for American football."

Pachydyptes was slightly larger than Icadyptes salasi, the best-identified of the giant penguins.