The Chatham raven (''Corvus moriorum'') is a prehistoric

raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

formerly native to the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

(

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

). The closely related

New Zealand raven The New Zealand raven (''Corvus antipodum'') was native to the North Island and South Island of New Zealand but has been extinct since the 16th century. There were two subspecies: the North Island raven (''Corvus antipodum antipodum'') and the So ...

, ''C. antipodum'' occurred in the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

Islands of New Zealand. ''C. antipodum'' was formerly included in ''C. moriorum'', and later considered a distinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, however in 2017 genetic research determined that the two raven populations were

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

rather than separate species, having only split 130,000 years ago. A reconstruction of the raven is in the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

, specimen MNZ S.036749.

Description and ecology

The Chatham raven was significantly larger than the New Zealand raven, and probably the world's fourth- or fifth-largest

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

. They had long, broad bills that were not as arched as those of some of the

Hawaiian crow The Hawaiian crow or alalā (''Corvus hawaiiensis'') is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae, that is currently extinct in the wild, though reintroduction programs are underway. It is about the size of the carrion crow at in length, b ...

s (''C. hawaiiensis''). Presumably, they were black all over like all their close relatives. There do not seem to be recorded oral traditions of this sub-species – most of the

Moriori The Moriori are the native Polynesian people of the Chatham Islands (''Rēkohu'' in Moriori; ' in Māori), New Zealand. Moriori originated from Māori settlers from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 CE. This was near the time of the ...

people, after whom this sub-species was named, were eventually killed or enslaved by

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

explorers, and little of their natural history knowledge has been preserved. Thus, it cannot be completely ruled out that like some congeners they had partially white or grey plumage (see also

Pied raven The pied raven (''Corvus corax varius'' morpha ''leucophaeus'') is an extinct colour morph of the North Atlantic subspecies of the common raven which was only found on the Faroe Islands and was last seen in 1902. It had large areas of white feath ...

). Remains of Chatham ravens are most common in coastal sites on the Chatham Islands. On the coast, it may have frequented the seal and

penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

colonies or fed in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

, as does the Tasmanian forest raven (''C. tasmanicus''). It may also have depended on fruit, like the

New Caledonian crow The New Caledonian crow (''Corvus moneduloides'') is a medium-sized member of the family Corvidae, native to New Caledonia. The bird is often referred to as the 'qua-qua' due to its distinctive call. It eats a wide range of food, including many ...

(''C. moneduloides''), but it is difficult to understand why a fruit eater would have been most common in coastal forest and shrubland when fruit was distributed throughout the forest.

References

* Gill, B. J. 2003. "Osteometry and systematics of the extinct New Zealand ravens (Aves: Corvidae: Corvus)". ''Journal of Systematic Palaeontology'' 1: 43–58. * Scofield, R. P., Mitchell K.J., Wood, J.R., De Pietri, V.L., Jarvie, S., Llamas, B., Cooper, A., 2017. "The origin and phylogenetic relationships of the New Zealand ravens" in Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, Vol.106, p. 136-143. ; * Worthy, T.H., Holdaway R.N., 2002, ''The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand'', Indiana University Press, Bloomington. .

External links

''Chatham Islands Raven. Corvus moriorum.''
by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'', by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006 Corvus Extinct birds of the Chatham Islands Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Ravens Holocene extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1892 {{Paleo-bird-stub

Description and ecology

See also

References

External links