The New Zealand stiff-tailed duck (''Oxyura vantetsi'') 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 ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

species from

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 ...

which is known only 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 ...

remains. It was first described as a distinct species by

Trevor H. 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 ...

in 2005. The New Zealand stiff-tailed duck was closely related to the Australian

blue-billed duck The blue-billed duck (''Oxyura australis'') is a small Australian stiff-tailed duck, with both the male and female growing to a length of 40 cm (16 in). The male has a slate-blue bill which changes to bright-blue during the breeding sea ...

(''Oxyura australis'') but its bones were about one tenth smaller than those of its Australian relative. The holotype was found in 1967 at

Lake Poukawa Lake Poukawa is a small shallow hardwater lake in the Hawke's Bay Region, North Island, New Zealand. It is located about 20 km south-west of Hastings, New Zealand, close to the settlement of Te Hauke. It is the largest lake lying within a ...

in Hawke's Bay,

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

and remains in the collection of 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 ...

. The specific name honours the late Australian ornithologist

Gerard Frederick van Tets Gerard Frederick van Tets (19 January 1929 – 14 January 1995), otherwise known as Jerry van Tets, was a twentieth century British, Canadian and Australian ornithologist and palaeontologist. Born to Dutch parents, jhr. Hendrik Barthout van ...

(1929–1995) who first recognized the relationship of this species with the

stiff-tailed duck The stiff-tailed ducks, the genus ''Oxyura'', are part of the Oxyurini tribe of ducks. All have, as their name implies, long, stiff tail feathers, which are erected when the bird is resting. All have relatively large, swollen bills. These are ...

s in 1983. Because the bones of the New Zealand stiff-tailed duck were unlabeled, it was not until 2004 that Trevor H. Worthy from the

identified 19 bones out of 13,000 fossil remains of

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which in ...

found in the

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 ...

deposits at

. The fossil remains consist of left

humeri The humerus (; ) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a round ...

, distal left humeri, right humeri, distal right humeri, and proximal right humeri. The New Zealand stiff-tailed duck presumably became extinct due to overhunting by the

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 ...

in the 16th century.

References

*Tennyson, A. & Martinson, P.: ''Extinct birds of New Zealand.'' Te Papa Press, 2006, *Worthy, T. H. (2005): ''A new species of Oxyura (Aves: Anatidae) from the New Zealand Holocene.'' Longmann Symposium. - Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 51: 255–272. *Worthy, T. H. (2004): ''The Holocene fossil waterfowl fauna of Lake Poukawa, North Island, New Zealand''
PDF full text, Online, 652 kilobytes
*Horn, P. L (1983): Subfossil avian deposits from Poukawa, Hawkes Bay, and the first record of Oxyura australis (Blue-billed Duck) from New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 13: 67–78.

External links

''New Zealand Stiff-tailed Duck. Oxyura vantetsi. From the series: Extinct Birds of New Zealand.''
by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'', by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:New Zealand Stiff-Tailed Duck Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Oxyura Holocene extinctions Extinct birds of New Zealand Fossil taxa described in 2005 Birds described in 2005