New Caledonian Earth Dove
| New Caledonian Earth Dove | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Alopecoenas longitarsus | ||||||||||
| Balouet & Olson , 1989 |
The New Caledonian earth pigeon ( Alopecoenas longitarsus ) is an extinct species of pigeon from the genus of the Indo-Pacific earth pigeons ( Alopecoenas ). It was endemic to New Caledonia and is known only from subfossil bone material from the Holocene . The type epitheton longus ("long") and tarsus ("foot") refers to the very thin, elongated tarsometatarsus .
The holotype, a complete left tarsometatarsus, was discovered in 1986 in Pindai Cave (21 ° 20'S, 164 ° 57'E) on the Nepoui Peninsula on the west coast of New Caledonia. The paratypes include a complete left femur , the proximal half of the left femur, the distal half of a right tarsometatarsus, the proximal fragment of the left tarsometatarsus, and a portion of the left coracoid .
After the also extinct giant earth pigeon ( Alopecoenas nui ), the New Caledonian earth pigeon was the second largest known species of the Indo-Pacific earth pigeon.
The question of whether the species was able to fly or unable to fly cannot be answered due to the scarce bone material.
The exact time of extinction of the New Caledonian earth pigeon is not known. Presumably it disappeared during the early colonization of New Caledonia.
literature
- J.-C. Balouet & SL Olson: Fossil Birds from Late Quaternary Deposits in New Caledonia In: Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. Number 469.Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC, 1989: p. 16-17
- Michael Walters & Julian Pender Hume: Extinct Birds . Poiser Monographes (A&C Black), 2012. ISBN 978-140-815-725-1 . Pp. 151-152.