What if I told you that you have never seen a penguin in your life? I know you'd probably tell me I am a liar right? Trust me, I get it. Up until yesterday I would have said the same thing. However, that was before I found out that the penguins we see today are actually imposters. That's right, the birds we call penguins are actually an entirely different species. These pseudo-penguins are not true penguins.
The Penguins Of Today Are Not True Penguins
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Unilad shares how Reddit user decided to break the internet when they shared that "the birds we call Penguins today are not actually penguins at all." The post continued, "But another species of bird that was named after them because of their looks and there are no true penguins alive today." Are you sitting in disbelief and stunned silence? Because I was when I first heard the news.
Although it seems impossible and fake, it turns out that it is true. The original penguins were called "the great auks, or Pinguinus impennis." They were native to the Arctic and sub-Arctic. They looked almost identical to the birds we call penguins today. However their beaks were bigger and more bulbous.
Although the pseudo-penguins of today bear a striking resemblance to the original penguins, they are not closely related. Apparently the last of the true penguins was killed in 1844 by fisherman. Unilad shares how "for hundreds of yers, they were popular as meat and bait, and parts of their bodies, such as their fat, eggs, and feathers were sold as goods."
Pseudo-Penguins Of Today
If you are still having a hard time believing that the birds we call penguins today are pseudo-penguins, you just need to go to museums. They wanted to keep proof of the animal's existence so they displayed "the mounted skins of great auks." These true penguins were everywhere, and scientists believe if they had not been hunted to extinction they would be very populous today.
Users online even commented on the remains of true penguins that they saw at the museum. They wrote, "I just visited the national history museum of Denmark with my kid, and saw the last stuffed Great Auk ever to be killed by a human." It is truly insane and now I can't help but wonder what other animals this may be true for as well.
