• Question: Do penguins have knees?

    Asked by georgiawheelerxo to Charlotte, Colin, Becki, Rick on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Rebecca Scott

      Rebecca Scott answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      erm…well they have a lot of feathers covering that part of their body, so we’d have to look at the skeleton. Penguins have the same bones in the legs as we do, a femur (the big one from your hip to your knee), a tibia and a fibula (the two from your knee to your ankle) and the leg is therefore jointed between the femur and the tibia/fibula, so yes, penguins do have knees, we just don’t see them under all the feathers. I think they might also have a knee-cap (patella) like us too, but not sure.

      You can see some cool x-ray images of penguin skeles here though: http://penguins.neaq.org/2010/07/faq-do-penguins-have-knees.html

    • Photo: Charlotte Dalton

      Charlotte Dalton answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Yes they do, they are just hidden by all the feathers they need to keep warm

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