Ascension rail
| Ascension rail | ||||||||||
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Ascension rail ( Mundia elpenor ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||
| Mundia | ||||||||||
| Bourne , Ashmole & Simmons , 2003 | ||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||
| Mundia elpenor | ||||||||||
| ( Olson , 1973) |
The Ascension rail ( Mundia elpenor ) is an extinct, flightless species of rail that was endemic to the remote island of Ascension in the Atlantic Ocean .
description
The Ascension rail is only known through a description and drawing by the explorer Peter Mundy from 1656 and bones found on Ascension by ornithologists Philip Ashmole and Storrs Lovejoy Olson in the 1960s and 1970s. According to Mundy's description, the species was about eight inches long, mottled gray or with a black and white speckle pattern.
Taxonomy
In the past, the Ascension rail was placed together with the St. Helena rail and the Atlantis rail in the genus Atlantisia . However, recent studies of the bones have shown that these rail species were not closely related and so the Ascension rail was classified in the genus Mundia in honor of the discoverer .
Occurrence and way of life
The Ascension rail apparently lived in the semi-arid inland zone of Ascension and mainly fed on eggs of the black tern ( Onychoprion fuscata ). She had strong legs with which she could run nimbly.
die out
Their extinction is believed to be due to rats that were introduced to Ascension in the 18th century. But it may have survived until the introduction of cats in 1815.
literature
- Walton Beacham: World Wildlife Fund Guide to Extinct Species of Modern Times. 1997, ISBN 0-933833-40-7 .
- Errol Fuller: Extinct Birds. 2000, ISBN 0-8160-1833-2 .
- David Day: The Doomsday Book of Animals. Ebury Press, London 1981, ISBN 0-670-27987-0 .
- Storrs Olson: Evolution of the rails of the south Atlantic Islands (Aves: Rallidae). In: Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 152, 1973, pp. 1-53 ( PDF file; 28.3 MB online ).
- WRP Bourne, NP Ashmole, KEL Simmons: A new subfossil night heron and a new genus for the extinct rail from Ascension Island, central tropical Atlantic Ocean. In: Ardea. 91, Issue 1, 2003, pp. 45–51 ( PDF file full text ).
Web links
- Mundia elpenor in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 20 of 2008.
- L'Oiseau Mysterieux de Peter Mundy (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ WRP Bourne, NP Ashmole, KEL Simmons: A new subfossil night heron and a new genus for the extinct rail from Ascension Island, central tropical Atlantic Ocean. In: Ardea. 91, Issue 1, 2003, pp. 45-51.