Head-on x-ray of penguin, the knees are in green rectangles

Side-view of penguin knees in yellow rectangle



So now you know!



- Andrea





Looking at a penguin standing or waddling around on the island it may look like they have very short legs and no knees.But yes, penguins do have knees!A penguin’s leg is composed of a short femur, knee, tibia and fibula. The upper leg bones are not visible as they are covered in feathers giving penguins a very short legged appearance. Here you can compare the leg of a penguin skeleton to a model of a human skeleton.Take at look at these x-rays of one of our penguins and you can see the leg bones, including the knee joint and how most of it is covered in the penguin’s body.