The bar-winged rail (''Hypotaenidia poeciloptera'') was a species of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
in the family
Rallidae
The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized, ground-living birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, althoug ...
. It was
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
and was last collected ca 1890 in
Viti Levu
Viti Levu (pronounced ) is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji. It is the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population.
Geology
Fiji lies in a tectonically complex area between the Australian P ...
. The species was identified from twelve 19th century specimens, some of which are known to be in Boston, London and New York. The last unconfirmed sighting of this bird was in 1973.
Fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
remains dating back to the late
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
or early
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...
are known from some caves in Fiji.
Description
![Nesoclopeus poecilopterus egg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Nesoclopeus_poecilopterus_egg.jpg)
It was a flightless island ground-nesting
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
/freshwater
swamp
A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
dweller and is believed to have disappeared after the introduction of the
mongoose
A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family is currently split into two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to so ...
and
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
s to the islands.
References
* University of Wisconsin Referenc
Downloaded 22 December 2007.
External links
3D viewof specimen RMNH 110.047, RMNH 110.064 and RMNH 110.065 at
Naturalis
Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021.
Alth ...
, Leiden (requires
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...
browser plugin).
bar-winged rail
The bar-winged rail (''Hypotaenidia poeciloptera'') was a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It was endemic to Fiji and was last collected ca 1890 in Viti Levu. The species was identified from twelve 19th century specimens, some of which are ...
†
Extinct birds of Oceania
Extinct flightless birds
Bird extinctions since 1500
bar-winged rail
The bar-winged rail (''Hypotaenidia poeciloptera'') was a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It was endemic to Fiji and was last collected ca 1890 in Viti Levu. The species was identified from twelve 19th century specimens, some of which are ...
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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