kyrios by the second paragraph I went straight to the pdf of the peer-reviewed study the article was based on. Fascinating. What Cole et. al (about 20 other profs signed off on this) did was compile a massive penguin DNA database reaching back into the fossil record up to today. ambitious. The extinction of many lines correlated with major weather shifts thru time. This was interesting in the study:
"While evolutionary rates and sea surface temperatures appear to
be negatively correlated, evolutionary rates and body mass are
positively correlated, suggesting that large-bodied species inhabiting
colder climates are more equipped to adapt to new environments
during climate events. Indeed, our demographic results reveal that
penguins have had a complicated history, shaped by climatic
oscillations, which has led to population crashes in those species
reliant on restricted niches and ecologies."
I was thinking about the warm water penguins (Galapogos, Falklands etc) who are absent from this study (which I skimmed). I thought maybe they were the exception to this paper's thesis. but then I remembered the warm water penguins are born small, stay small, pant a lot to cool themselves, and most are considered endangered....so: they are not really evolutionary adapted. This actually proves the paper's thesis.
Also learned: Gentoo is a penguin variety.
I kept the pdf. Real interesting reading/ thanks for the link. As for your title: you sly devil🙂
