Lowe's Penguin is the type species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of the extinct penguin

Penguin

Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Archaeospheniscus. It stood approximately 85-115 cm high, between a modern King Penguin

King Penguin

The King Penguin is the second largest species of penguin at about , second only to the Emperor Penguin. There are two subspecies—A. p. patagonicus and A. p...

 and an Emperor Penguin

Emperor Penguin

The Emperor Penguin 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 height and weighing anywhere from . The dorsal side and head are black and sharply delineated from the white belly,...

 in size. It is known from bones of a single individual (Otago Museum

Otago museum

The Otago Museum is situated in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was founded in 1868 and has a collection of over two million artefacts and specimens from the fields of natural history and ethnography...

 C.47.20) and possibly some additional material such as the OM C.47.27 femur

Femur

The femur , or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in tetrapod vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs. In vertebrates with four legs such as dogs and horses, the femur is found only in...

, all recovered from the Late Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

 Kokoamu Greensand Formation (27-28 MYA) at Duntroon, New Zealand

Duntroon, New Zealand

Duntroon is a small farming town in the Waitaki District of New Zealand's South Island. Although traditionally considered a North Otago town, it is presently officially located within the farthest southern reaches of Canterbury...

.

The species' binomen

Binomen

In zoological nomenclature, a binomen , is the two-part name of a species. The term was introduced in 1953, abolishing the previously used "binomial name" . A binomen consists of a generic name and a specific epithet...

 was given in honor of Percy Lowe

Percy Lowe

Percy Roycroft Lowe was an English surgeon and ornithologist.Lowe was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire and studied medicine at Jesus College, Cambridge. He served as a civil surgeon in the Second Boer War, and it was whilst in South Africa that he became interested in ornithology...

, who researched prehistoric penguins and proposed a theory (now considered erroneous) that these birds were derived from reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s independently of the other modern birds.