After searching for 5 years for a fossil penguin, I finally found one in Aug 2022 on a secluded beach in New Zealand. I then spent the next 5 months removing the rock using a combination of an air scribe (mini jackhammer) and vinegar (acetic acid) to remove the rock. The air scribe removes the bulk of the rock and the vinegar removes the last 1mm so the air scribe doesn't scratch the bone.
This is an unknown species of penguin at this point and might even be a new species altogether. It will be donated to a New Zealand museum where it can be studied further. The are is late Miocene in age, so the fossil would be 3 - 6 million years old.
The tarsometatarsus (TMT) bone is the most important bone to have to be able to see where in the penguin lineage this specimen is, and luckily it was still in the rock (called a concretion) - it's a very lucky find.
It took more than 300 hours to prep this fossil penguin.
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