The North Island takahē () (''Porphyrio mantelli'') is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of flightless swamphen that was native to the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It is closely related to the living South Island takahē.

Description

This flightless species is known from subfossils from a number of sites across North Island. The North Island takahē compared to the South island species was proportionally larger, but had a smaller premaxilla (and thus beak) relative to body size. Other differences from the South island species include the more elongate

tarsometatarsus The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bird bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) a ...

bones of the legs relative to the

tibiotarsus The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia. A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These ...

Taxonomy

Traditionally the North Island takahē was considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

South Island takahē. Trewick (1996) suggested that the two taxa were independently derived from two separate colonisations by flying ancestors, so proved to be separate species. However, this was challenged by the result of subsequent DNA analysis, which suggested that the two takahē species were each other's closest relatives and as such probably originated from a single colonisation of New Zealand, but were divergent enough from each other to warrant being considered distinct species, with the split estimated to have occurred 4 to 1.5 million years ago. The binomial of this bird commemorates the naturalist and civil servant

Walter Mantell Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell (11 March 1820 – 7 September 1895) was a 19th-century New Zealand naturalist, politician, and land purchase commissioner. He was a founder and first secretary of the New Zealand Institute, and a collector of moa ...

Extinction

The North Island takahē became extinct sometime after Māori settlement of New Zealand around 1320 AD. Some reports have suggested that the species may have persisted until the 19th century, but this is unconfirmed.

References

* Worthy, Trevor H. & Holdaway R. N. (2002): ''The lost world of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand''. Indiana University Press, Bloomington. .

External links

North Island Takahe – BirdLife Species Factsheet

North Island takahē The North Island takahē () (''Porphyrio mantelli'') is an extinct species of flightless swamphen that was native to the North Island of New Zealand. It is closely related to the living South Island takahē. Description This flightless speci ...

Birds of the North Island Extinct flightless birds Bird extinctions since 1500 Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Extinct birds of New Zealand

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