Taxonomy
The African Penguin was one of the many bird species originally described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, where he grouped it with the Wandering Albatross on the basis of its bill and nostril morphology and gave it the name Diomedea demersa.
The African Penguin is a banded penguin, placed in the genus Spheniscus. The other banded penguins are the African Penguin's closest relatives, and are all found mainly in the Southern Hemisphere: the Humboldt Penguin and Magellanic Penguins found in southern South America, and the Galápagos Penguin found in the Pacific Ocean near the equator. All are similar in shape, colour and behaviour.
The African Penguin is a member of the class Aves, and the order- sphenisciformes. It is also a member of the family- spheniscidae, the genus- spheniscus, and the species- demersus. Its scientific name is Spheniscus Demersus, which implies much about its behavior when analyzed with etymology.
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