Historical perspective of Otto Nordenskjöld´s Antarctic fossil penguin collection and Carl Wiman?s contribution

ACOSTA HOSPITALECHE, C.; HAGSTROM, J.; REGUERO, M.; MORS, T.

POLAR RECORD

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2017 vol. 53 p. 364 - 375

0032-2474

The early explorer and scientist Otto Nordenskjöld, leader of the Swedish South Polar Expedition of 1901?1903 was the first to collect Antarctic penguin fossils. The site is situated at the NE area of Seymour Island, and constitutes one of the most important localities in the study of fossil penguins. The task of describing these specimens together with fossil whale remains was given to Professor Carl Wiman (1867?1944) at Uppsala University, Sweden. Although the paradigm in studies of penguin systematic has changed considerably during recent years, Wiman´s contributions are still remarkable. His establishment of size groups as basis for classification was a novel approach that allowed dealing with an unexpected high morphological diversity and a limited knowledge of penguin skeletal anatomy. In the past, it was useful to provide a basic framework for the group that today could be used as ?taxon free? categories. First, it was important to define new species, and then to establish a classification based on size and robustness. This laid the foundation for the first attempts to use morphometric parameters for the classification of isolated penguin bones. The Nordenskjöld materials constitute an invaluable collection for comparative purposes, and every year researchers from different countries visit this collection.