The Niue night heron (''Nycticorax kalavikai'') is an extinct
night heron species that 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 the island of
Niue
Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tong ...
in West
Polynesia
Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...
.
History
The night heron was described in 2000 from
subfossil
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 in ...
bones collected in January 1995 by
paleozoologist Trevor Worthy
Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates.
Biography
Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High S ...
at the Anakuli cave site in Hakupu village. The age range of about 5300 to 3600 year
BP for fossil material collected from the site predates human settlement of the island.
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Etymology
The specific
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
comes from the
Niuean words ''kalavi'' (land crab) and ''kai'' (food), alluding to speculation by the describers that
land crabs
A number of lineages of crabs have evolved to live predominantly on land. Examples of terrestrial crabs are found in the families Gecarcinidae and Gecarcinucidae, as well as in selected genera from other families, such as ''Sesarma'', althou ...
constituted an important part of the species' diet.
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]
See also
* List of birds of Niue
There are 57 species of birds that have been recorded on Niue, of which one has been introduced by humans.Watling, Dick (2001) ''A Guide to the Birds of Fiji & Western Polynesia'', Environmental Consultants (Fiji), Suva. Two species are globall ...
References
Extinct birds of Oceania
Nycticorax
Holocene extinctions
Fossil taxa described in 2000
Birds of Niue
Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
Birds described in 2000
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