Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, the most complete penguin skeleton found in the Eocene of Antarctica: taxonomic remarks

ACOSTA HOSPITALECHE, C.; REGUERO, M.

GEOBIOS

ELSEVIER FRANCE-EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER

Lugar: Paris; Año: 2014 vol. 44 p. 77 - 85

0016-6995

A new fossil penguin skeleton from the La Meseta Formation collected at the locality DPV 13/84 (Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula) from the crinoid horizon located 40 m above the base of the 145 m-thick Submeseta Allomember (late Eocene-early Oligocene?) is described. The penguin was assigned to the species Palaeeudyptes klekowskii Myrcha, Tatur and del Valle, 1990 and is the most complete skeleton ever recovered from Antarctica. Discoveries like this one are very important for the study of the anatomy and evolution of penguins, in particular regarding the Antarctic species included in the genus Palaeeudyptes Huxley, 1859. P. klekowskii closely resembles its smaller congeneric species P. gunnari (Wiman, 1905), with only the relative concavity of the margo medialis distinguishing the tarsometatarsi of both taxa. However, the results of a morphometric geometric analysis show some intra-specific variation, making possible the systematic assignment of the majority of the specimens. Sizes variation is congruent with the presence of two different species.