Coua berthae
| Coua berthae | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Coua berthae | ||||||||||||
| Goodman & Ravoavy , 1993 |
Coua berthae is an extinct species of bird from the genus of the silk cuckoo ( Coua ). The art epithet honors the Malagasy primatologist Berthe Rakotosamimanana , former director of the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie in Antananarivo , who for many years supported researchers and students in their zoological and palaeontological field work.
Discovery story
Already in 1911 Alfred Grandidier discovered a complete tarsometatarsus in Apasambazimba . This bone is in the Academie Malgache and is now classified as a paratype . The holotype, a left half of the pelvis , was unearthed in 1983 in the Grotte d'Anjohibe near Andranoboka.
features
Due to the length of the pelvic half of 68.2 mm and the tarsometatarsus of 92.9 mm, it is assumed that Coua berthae represented the largest species of the silk cuckoo. By comparing the pool lengths of four recent species of silk cuckoo, an estimated minimum weight of 740 g was calculated using linear regression . Given that all species of silk cuckoo have proportionally small wing bones, it is reasonable to assume that Coua berthae was not a good flier.
die out
Coua berthae became extinct in the Holocene . The exact time of extinction and the cause are unknown.
literature
- Steven M. Goodman & Florent Ravoavy: Identification of bird subfossils from cave surface deposits at Anjohibe, Madagascar, with a description of a new giant Coua (Cuculidae: Couinae) In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Volume 106 (part 1) , Pp. 24-33, 1993