''Spheniscus anglicus'' is an extinct species of banded penguin that lived during the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma. The ...

in what is now Chile, South America. The species was described in 2015 by Richard D. Benson based on a fossil found in the Bahia Inglesa Formation in northern Chile.

Description

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

material consists of a fossil penguin skull, without a beak. The species is described as smaller than the

emperor penguin The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing from . Feathers of ...

or the

king penguin The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' i ...

, but larger than any other in the genus.

Discovery and naming

The only known current fossil of ''Spheniscus anglicus'' was recovered from the Bahia Inglesa Formation at an unknown date, and later sold at the 2001 Tucson Gem & Mineral Show to Mark Rasmussen, who later donated it to the

Science Museum of Minnesota Science Museum of Minnesota is an American museum focused on topics in technology, natural history, physical science, and mathematics education. Founded in 1907 and located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution is staf ...

. The species is named after the Bahia Inglesa Formation in which the fossil was found.

Notes

References

Fossils of Chile Extinct penguins Spheniscus Miocene birds of South America Fossil taxa described in 2015 {{paleo-bird-stub