[3] Of the four species, two (P. gunnari and P. klekowskii) are known from numerous remains found in Middle or Late Eocene strata (34 to 50 MYA) of the La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica.

P. antarcticus, the first fossil penguin described, is only really known from a single incomplete tarsometatarsus found in the Late Oligocene Otekaike Limestone (23 to 28, possibly up to 34 MYA) at Kakanui, New Zealand, but numerous other bones have been tentatively assigned to the species.

Bones unassignable to species also were found on Seymour Island, but in these cases they seem to be from juvenile individuals or are simply too damaged to be of diagnostic value.

[6][4] Additionally, an incomplete humerus identified as Palaeeudyptes was recovered in southernmost Chile,[7] from middle to late Eocene beds of the Río Turbio Formation, near Puerto Natales, 200 km (120 mi) south from Torres del Paine National Park.

[citation needed] The supposed genus Wimanornis, based on two Seymour Island humeri, is apparently a synonym of P.