''Matuku otagoense'', also referred to as the Saint Bathans heron, is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus and species of

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

from the Early Miocene of New Zealand. It was described from fossil material collected in 2007 from the Saint Bathans Fauna of the Bannockburn Formation in

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It was a contemporary of the much smaller Saint Bathans bittern, remains of which have been found in the same sediments. The genus name ''matuku'' is a Māori-language word meaning “heron” or "bittern". The specific epithet is a latinisation of the name of the

region where the descriptive material was collected.

References

Fossil taxa described in 2010 Birds described in 2010 Ardeidae Herons Miocene birds Extinct birds of New Zealand {{Paleo-bird-stub