Réunion rail
| Réunion rail | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Dryolimnas augusti | ||||||||||
| Mourer-Chauviré , Bour , Ribes & Moutou , 1999 |
The Réunion railroad ( Dryolimnas augusti ) is an extinct species of railing that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion .
etymology
The art epithet honors the French poet Auguste de Villèle (1858–1943), whose tireless interest in the history of Réunion and his hospitality enabled numerous naturalists to discover and explore the Réunion caves.
description
The material found in 1996 includes two complete tarsometatarsi and two tibiotarsi , five vertebrae , a sacrum , a raven bone , two humeri , an ulna , three femurs , ten toe bones and a fragment of the left lower jaw bone . The texture of the bones shows the Réunion rail as a close relative of the white-throated claw ( Dryolimnas cuvieri ) and the Aldabra-white-throated claw ( Dryolimnas cuvieri aldabranus ). The long, powerful tarsometatarsus characterizes the Réunion rail as the largest known taxon of the genus Dryolimnas. The estimated body length was 35 to 38 cm and the estimated weight was 300 to 350 g.
Research history and extinction
The subfossil remains of the Réunion railroad were discovered in 1996 in the fossil deposit "Caverne de la Tortue" on Réunion and described scientifically in 1999.
Probably a travel report from 1674, in which the French explorer Sieur Dubois mentions a bird called Râle des Bois (German: Waldrale), refers to this species. However, the Réunion ralle is not allowed to go with the Réunion purple hen ( Porphyrio coerulescens ) that Sieur Dubois had referred to in the same report as Oiseau Bleu . While the Réunion purple grouse reached approximately the size of the Réunionibis ( Threskiornis solitarius ), the Réunion rail was about as large as the pond rail ( Gallinula chloropus ). The Réunion rail was probably flightless, since the size ratio of the wing bones compared to the leg bones, shows similarities with the bones of the flightless Aldabra white-throated claw.
The Réunion railroad probably died out in the late 17th century.
literature
- Cécile Mourer-Chauviré, Roger Bour, Sonia Ribes & François Moutou: The avifauna of Réunion Island (Mascarene Islands) at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans . In: Avian Paleontology at the Close of the 20th Century: Proceedings of the 4th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution , Washington, DC, June 4-7, 1996. Storrs L. Olson (Ed.) 89: S. 1-38. 1999
- Anthony Cheke & Julian Hume: Lost Land of the Dodo , p. 128. T. & AD Poyser, 2008, ISBN 0-7136-6544-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Julian P. Hume: Systematics, morphology and ecology of rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with one new species Zootaxa 4626 (1): pp. 1–107, 2019. doi : 10.11646 / zootaxa.4626.1.1
- ^ Sieur Dubois: Les voyages faits par le sievr DB aux isles Dauphine ou Madagascar, & Bourbon, ou Mascarenne, és années 1669, 70, 71, & 72: dans laquelle il est curieusement traité du cap Vert de la ville de Surate des isles de Sainte Helene, ou de l'Ascension: ensemble les moeurs, religions, forces, gouvernemens & coûtumes des habitans desdites isles, avec l'histoire naturelle du païs. Paris: Chez Claude Barbin, 1674.