The Saint Helena hoopoe (''Upupa antaios''), also known as the Saint Helena giant hoopoe or giant hoopoe, is an extinct species of the

hoopoe Hoopoes () are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers. Three living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years all of the extant species were lumped as a single ...

(

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Upupidae), known exclusively from an incomplete

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 ...

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

. It was last seen around 1550.

Description

It was endemic to the island of

Saint Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

in the

South Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

. ''Upupa antaios'' was a large bird, having bigger and more robust skull and wing elements than those of the common hoopoe (''

Upupa epops The Eurasian hoopoe (''Upupa epops'') is the most widespread species of the genus ''Upupa''. It is a distinctive cinnamon coloured bird with black and white wings, a tall erectile crest, a broad white band across a black tail, and a long narrow ...

''). Its beak is also more massive and decurved in comparison with common hoopoe, which could be the ancestor of ''U. antaios''. It was most likely flightless.Storrs L. Olson. (1975)
Paleornithology of St Helena Island, south Atlantic Ocean
''Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology'' 23.

History of study

The first analysis of this species was given in 1963 by the British zoologist

Philip Ashmole Nelson Philip Ashmole (born 11 January 1934 in Amersham, BuckinghamshireMen of Achievement, p. 33, 15th Edition 93–94, Taylor & Francis, 1993. .), commonly known as Philip Ashmole, is an English zoologist and conservationist. His main research ...

, who discovered, in the Dry Gut sediments east of Saint Helena, a left

humerus 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 roun ...

which differed significantly from that of other

Upupidae Hoopoes () are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers. Three living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years all of the extant species were lumped as a single ...

. The incomplete skeleton, which was found in 1975 by the

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Storrs L. Olson Storrs Lovejoy Olson (April 3, 1944 – January 20, 2021) was an American biologist and ornithologist who spent his career at the Smithsonian Institution, retiring in 2008. One of the world's foremost avian paleontologists, he was best known ...

, consists of both

coracoid A coracoid (from Greek κόραξ, ''koraks'', raven) is a paired bone which is part of the shoulder assembly in all vertebrates except therian mammals (marsupials and placentals). In therian mammals (including humans), a coracoid process is prese ...

s and the left

femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with ...

Ecology

Saint Helena giant hoopoe could have been a predator of the extinct Saint Helena earwig ''(Labidura herculeana)''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q941714 † Extinct flightless birds Extinct birds of Atlantic islands Bird extinctions since 1500

Saint Helena hoopoe The Saint Helena hoopoe (''Upupa antaios''), also known as the Saint Helena giant hoopoe or giant hoopoe, is an extinct species of the hoopoe (family Upupidae), known exclusively from an incomplete subfossil skeleton. It was last seen around 1550 ...