Hi, my name is Josh Tyler and I'm taking part in the #GlobalScienceShow & #FUTURES2020.

I'll be tweeting about cryptic species and how we discovered three new species of gentoo penguin. Follow along with the whole show and check out @Jimbo_Rand who is up next. 1/12

New species are discovered all the time. These organisms often look very different to existing species and are easy for scientists to classify them as new. 2/12

Cryptic species however look almost identical to other species, hiding in plain sight. To tell these apart, we must rely on other biological features like DNA or ecological features like diet and habitat. 3/12

Gentoo penguins are easily recognised by their red-toned bill, black head, and white patches above the eyes. Native to the islands of the Southern Ocean and the coastline of the Western Antarctic Peninsula, gentoo penguins live in many different habitats. 4/12

Based on existing evidence, scientists have recently started thinking that the gentoo penguin might be more than one species and that is exactly where our work begins. We hypothesised that the gentoo penguin was, in fact, a set of cryptic species. 5/12

We looked at gentoo penguins from 4 different populations spread across the Southern Ocean: Falkland Islands (FALK), South Georgia (SGI), South Shetlands & Western Antarctic Peninsula (SHHWAP) and Kerguelen Islands (KERG). 6/12

Using DNA samples from live gentoos and measurements taken from museum specimens, we were interested if there were any significant differences between the populations in terms of their genetics or morphology. The results were quite surprising… 7/n

It turns out that despite looking almost identical to the naked eye in terms of colouring, there are significant differences in the limb and bill shape and overall size of gentoos between the different populations. 8/12

From their DNA, we can tell that they aren’t mixing at all and are sticking to their local areas for breeding. Members of each population are each other’s closest relatives with gentoos on different islands being more distant cousins. 9/12

Our evidence points to all four gentoo populations being separate species! And because they are new, we got the exciting opportunity to name them, so let me introduce… 10/12

The Falklands gentoo (P. papua), the Antarctic Gentoo (P. ellsworthi), the Kerguelen Gentoo (P. taeniata) and the South Georgia Gentoo (P. poncetii), named after Australian Scientist Sally Poncet, who has spent her career working on the seabirds of South Georgia. 11 /12

That’s the story of how we found 3 new species of Gentoo penguin. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me on Twitter or via email. Thank you for coming along for the journey and enjoy the rest of the #GlobalScienceShow 12/12

Shout out to the amazing team that worked on the project @jane_younger, @DrGemClucas (who took the gentoo photos), @phylodiversity & @pics_of_birds. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of #GlobalScienceShow & #FUTURES2020 13/12