Scarlett's shearwater (''Puffinus spelaeus'') is an extinct species of

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

in the

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

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 ...

Procellariidae The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes (or tubenoses), which also ...

. Its common name commemorates New Zealand

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 ...

Ron Scarlett Ronald Jack Scarlett (22 March 1911 – 9 July 2002) was a New Zealand paleozoologist. Early life and family Scarlett was born at Stoke, near Nelson, on 22 March 1911 to Walter Andrew Scarlett and Lilian Elsie (née Cresswell). He was the old ...

, who recognised the bird's

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 represented a distinct species. This bird was described from bones collected in 1991 from a cave near the Fox River in the

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 ...

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 ...

. Subsequent discoveries of bones dating from 20,000 years ago to less than 600 years old reveal it was found only in the west and northwest of the South Island, in Northwest Nelson and Buller. Scarlett's shearwater was closely related to the fluttering shearwater ( ''P. gavia'') and Hutton's shearwater ( ''P. huttoni''), and DNA evidence from fossil bones show that all three had a common ancestor about 1 million years ago.Tennyson, A.J.D.; Shepherd, L.D. (2017). "DNA reveals the relationships of the extinct Scarlett's shearwater ''Puffinus spelaeus'' (Procellariiformes: Procellariidae)." ''Journal of Ornithology 158'': 379–384. It was smaller than its relatives, with an estimated weight of 250 g, and had the short wings characteristic of the fluttering shearwater. ''P. spelaeus'' is most likely to have been driven to extinction by a combination of exploitation by humans and predation by

kiore The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori people, Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Sou ...

Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, a ...

''Rattus exulans'', which was introduced by

Polynesians Polynesians form an ethnolinguistic group of closely related people who are native to Polynesia (islands in the Polynesian Triangle), an expansive region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sou ...

to New Zealand about 750 years ago.

References

External links

Scarlett's Shearwater. ''Puffinus spelaeus''.
by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'', by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:shearwater, Scarlett's Scarlett's shearwater Extinct birds of New Zealand Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Fossil taxa described in 1994 Holocene extinctions Birds described in 1994