Mangaia rail
| Mangaia rail | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Gallirallus ripleyi | ||||||||||||
| Steadman , 1986 |
The Mangaia rail ( Gallirallus ripleyi ) is an extinct species of rail from the genus Gallirallus . It was endemic to Mangaia Island in the southern Cook Islands . The kind epithet honors the American ornithologist Sidney Dillon Ripley .
The Mangaia rail is known only from subfossil material from the Te Rua Rere Cave in the Tavaʻenga district on Mangaia, which was found in April 1984 by David William Steadman and Tiria Ngatokorua.
The type material consists of the distal half of a tibiotarsus , a complete tarsometatarsus , a coracoid and the lower jaw .
The size of the bones allows the conclusion that the Mangaia rail was roughly the size of the extinct wake rail ( Gallirallus wakensis ). The lower jaw is thinner than most other types of rail and looks most similar to that of the wake rail. Given the vast distance between Mangaia and Wake , this similarity is likely due to convergent evolution and descent from a similar ancestor.
The coracoid shows that the Mangaia rail was flightless. It probably died out between 1390 and 1470.
literature
- David William Steadman: Two New Species of Rails (Aves: Rallidae) from Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands . Pac. Sci. 40, 1986: pp. 27-43 online