St. Helena Hoopoe
| St. Helena Hoopoe | ||||||||||||
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St. Helena Hoopoe ( Upupa antaios ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Upupa antaios | ||||||||||||
| Olson , 1975 |
The St. Helena Hoopoe ( Upupa antaios ) is an extinct bird of the hoopoe family . It was endemic to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic . Based on the subfossil bone finds, it is believed that it was much larger than its European and African relatives. In addition, he was probably only slightly airworthy. The first record of this species was in 1963 by the British zoologist Philip Ashmole . He discovered a left humerus in the Dry Gut deposits in eastern St. Helena , which was very different from that of other hoopoe species. The skeleton , found in 1975 by paleontologist Storrs Lovejoy Olson , consisted of an incomplete skull with a fully preserved lower jaw , the left ulna , the two raven bones and the left femur .
The species probably died out soon after the island was discovered in 1502 for unknown reasons. Habitat destruction, overhunting and introduced mammals such as house rats and house cats have probably contributed .
His diet probably also included the giant St. Helena earwig ( Labidura herculeana ), an insect that is probably also extinct today.
Its scientific name is derived from Antaios , son of Poseidon and the Gaea . He was a gigantic Greek wrestler who drew his indomitable strength from the earth and was defeated by a ruse by Heracles .
literature
- Storrs L. Olson, Paleornithology of St. Helena Island, south Atlantic Ocean, Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 23 (1975)
Web links
- Upupa Antaios in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.