The largest fossil penguin species found in Antarctica: it can weigh up to 115 kilograms

This is the artist's depiction of the ancient crowned penguin of Kah's, which scientists currently speculate is two meters long and weighs 115 kilograms.

According to foreign media reports, the emperor penguin is not the largest penguin species, scientists have shown that 37-40 million years ago in Antarctica lived the largest penguin found so far - Palaeeudyptes klekowskii , the body length can reach two meters, weighing 115 kilograms.

Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche of the La Plata Museum in Argentina said: "Antarctica was a wonderful time for the penguin family 37-40 million years ago, when there were 10-14 penguin species living in the Antarctic region. ”

These fossil penguin skeletons were found on Seymour Island in Antarctica, a warm region 40 million years ago with a climate very similar to tierra del Fuego in southern South America today. Thousands of fossil penguin skeleton samples have been excavated here, and earlier this year, Carolina said the most complete sample of the skeleton of the ancient crowned penguin of Carrea was found, although it contains only a dozen bone fossils, mainly from the wings and feet.

At present, Carolina found two large fossil bones, one is a wing bone, the other is a tarsal metatarsal bone, measurements show that the tarsal length is 9.1 cm, compared with the relative size of the penguin bone, Carolina assessed that the length of the ancient crown penguins reached 2.01 meters.

Due to the penguin's unique standing posture, it is slightly less tall than its body length, but the ancient-crowned penguin is larger than any known penguin species. In contrast, the emperor penguin weighs 46 kg, has a body length of 1.36 meters and a height of 1.16 meters; Another extinct penguin species is about 1.5 meters tall.

Dan Ksepka of the Bruce Museum in the United States said: "The tarsal metatarsal bone of the ancient crowned penguin is the longest foot bone part ever found, and it is clear that this is a large penguin species. But he stressed that inferring penguin length from tarsal metatarsals is unreliable because the skeletal body proportions of ancient extinct giant penguins differ from those of modern penguins.

Carolina noted that larger penguins can dive deeper waters and stay in the water longer than smaller penguins. According to the researchers' analysis, the Ancient Crown penguins were able to last 40 minutes in the water and had plenty of time to catch fish.

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