Caloenas canacorum

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Caloenas canacorum
Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Pigeon birds (Columbiformes)
Family : Pigeons (Columbidae)
Genre : Caloenas
Type : Caloenas canacorum
Scientific name
Caloenas canacorum
Balouet & Olson , 1989

Caloenas canacorum ( English Kanaka Pigeon = "New Caledonia pigeon ") is an extinct pigeon species that was found in New Caledonia , Tonga and probably on Vanuatu and Fiji . It belonged to the genus Caloenas , to which, in addition to the Liverpool pigeon ( Caloenas maculata ),which is also extinct, there isonly one more recent species, the collar pigeon ( Caloenas nicobarica ).

The holotype of Caloenas canacorum was discovered in 1986 in the Pindai Cave (21 ° 20'S, 164 ° 57'E) on the Nepoui Peninsula on the west coast of New Caledonia. As early as 1984, the paleontologist Tom Dye found bone fragments of an unknown pigeon species in the archaeological deposit Tongoleleka on Lifuka , Tonga , which David William Steadman identified as Caloenas canacorum in 1989 . The material brought to light in New Caledonia consists of a coracoid in which the tips of the procoracoid and the sternocoracoidal process are missing. The paratypes include a sternum , a left coracoid, the fragment of a right coracoid, which is believed to have come from a juvenile specimen, two proximal sections of the left shoulder blade and the distal end of the right humerus .

Caloenas canacorum was estimated to be 38 cm from the tip of its beak to its tail. This made it about 25 percent larger than the male pigeon. There is no evidence that the pigeon species had impaired flight ability.

The species became extinct in the Holocene . It is believed that it was hunted as a food source by the first settlers in New Caledonia.

literature

  • David W. Steadman: New Species And Records Of Birds (Aves, Megapodiidae, Columbidae) From An Archaeological Site On Lifuka, Tonga . In: Proceedings of The Biological Society of Washington . No. 102 , 1989, pp. 537-552 .
  • J.-C. Balouet, SL Olson: Fossil Birds from Late Quaternary Deposits in New Caledonia . In: Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology . No. 469 . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC 1989, pp. 14-16 .
  • Michael Walters, Julian Pender Hume: Extinct Birds . In: Poiser Monographes . A & C Black, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-4081-5725-1 , pp. 147 .