Students at the University of Quebec won a competition of human-powered submarines by basing their design on the body and movement of a penguin:
Team OMER, composed of students from the school's Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Montreal, drove two propellerless submarines to victory (winning $1,000 per race in the process) using thrust delivered from a pair of carbon fiber oars resembling the wings of the tuxedoed bird.
OMER 6, a one-person submarine, achieved a speed of 4.916 knots (5.65 miles per hour), beating the previous 4.642-knot (5.34-mile-per-hour) speed record for subs without a propeller. The two-person OMER 7 sub hit a top speed of 5.133 knots (5.90 miles per hour).
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=students-imitate-penguins-to-set-pe-2009-07-03
But... I saw a thing on I think the BBC yesterday about puffins on the island of Skelmor (?).
Imagine penguins, all great underwater with their wings and catching the fish and all.
Then they break the surface and FLY!
And have the gayest beaks in all of ornithology.
The penguin is dead, all hail King Puffin.