Question: What would be the next evolvation for penguins and why?

Thomas Clements answered on 18 Mar 2015:

This is a really hard question to answer.

Evolution occurs when there is a pressure on the population of an organism – i.e. climate is getting hotter or something is hunting them really efficiently.

This change is very gradual and happens over many generations (thousands and thousands of years). So for example if the environment warms up, future generations of penguins will reduce the fat they store to keep warm.

But the issue for animals alive today is that the changes humans are causing to the planet are so rapid that generally, evolution doesn’t have time to happen. This is why so many animal types are becoming extinct.

It is important as scientist we recognise this and think of ways to stop it. You never know, if we don’t sort out things like global warming there may not be any penguins in a thousand years. 🙁