Age is known to affect the gut microbiota in various animals; however, this relationship is poorly understood in seabirds. We investigated the temporal succession of gut microbiota in captive chinstrap penguins of different ages using high‐throughput sequencing. The gut microbiota exhibited a significant age succession pattern, reaching maturity in adults and then declining with increasing age. Only 15 amplicon sequence variants were shared among the gut microbiota in chinstrap penguins at all studied ages, and these contributed to most of the age‐related variations in total gut microbiota. Co‐occurrence networks found that these key bacteria belonged to the genera Acinetobacter, Clostridium sensu stricto, and Fusobacterium, and more species interactions were found within the same taxonomy. Functional prediction indicated that most of the metabolic functions were more abundant in the gut microbiota in adult chinstrap penguins, except for carbohydrate metabolism, which was significantly more abundant in older individuals.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Otaria byronia was sequenced for the first time. The mitogenome is 16,640 bp long and encodes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, one origin of light strand replication (O L ), and a control region (CR). The overall base composition is 33.1%, 27.0%, 14.2%, and 25.7% for A, C, G, and T, respectively. The CR with 1186 bp is in the position between tRNA-Phe and tRNA-Pro genes. Phylogenetic analyses show the classification status of the pinniped species and reveal that O. byronia is grouped to the Family Otariidae. ARTICLE HISTORY

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The complete mitochondrial genome of the king penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus was firstly determined. The mitogenome is 17,477 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and a control region. The total nucleotide composition is 31.0% A, 22.2% T, 33.1% C, and 13.8% G, with a total A + T content of 53.2%. The phylogenetic analysis demonstrates a close relationship between A. patagonicus and A. forsteri . These results provide fundamental information for further phylogeny and genetic studies on Aptenodytes genus.

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