The Chatham Island merganser (''Mergus milleneri'') is an extinct species of merganser duck. The Chatham merganser is known only from

subfossils 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, Seashell, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects pre ...

, so not much is known about the bird. It was the smallest of all ''

Mergus ''Mergus'' is the genus of the typical mergansers , fish-eating ducks in the subfamily Anatinae. The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny the Elder and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird. The common merganser (''Merg ...

'' species. Fossil records indicate it was widespread on

Chatham Island Chatham Island ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) is by far the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway bet ...

but not on the smaller nearby islands. The binomial name refers to Dr Philip Millener, to recognise his work in collecting material on the species.

References

milleneri Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Quaternary birds of Oceania Birds of the Chatham Islands Extinct birds of New Zealand Extinct birds of subantarctic islands Holocene extinctions Birds described in 2014 Fossil taxa described in 2014 {{paleo-bird-stub

See also

References