Enigmatic morphological disparity in tarsometatarsi of giant penguins from the Eocene of Antarctica

The only record of the Paleogene Antarctic Sphenisciformes comes from the Eocene La Meseta Formation (Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula). The analysis of tarsometatarsi attributed to the genus Anthropornis ("giant" penguins) from the Argentine, Polish and Swedish collections revealed an...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Acosta Hospitaleche, Carolina Ileana Alicia, Jadwiszczak, Piotr
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2011
País:Argentina
Recursos:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositório:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/84087
Acesso em linha:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/84087
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Paleontología
Biología
Antarctic peninsula
Anthropornis
Eocene la meseta formation
Penguins
Tarsometatarsi
Descrição
Resumo:The only record of the Paleogene Antarctic Sphenisciformes comes from the Eocene La Meseta Formation (Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula). The analysis of tarsometatarsi attributed to the genus Anthropornis ("giant" penguins) from the Argentine, Polish and Swedish collections revealed an intriguing heterogeneity within these taxonomically important elements of the skeleton. The unique hypotarsal morphology challenges the current systematics of large-bodied penguins and sheds new light on their evolution.