Tasidyptes hunteri
| Tasidyptes hunteri | ||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||
| Tasidyptes | ||||||||||
| van Tets & O'Connor, 1983 | ||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||
| Tasidyptes hunteri | ||||||||||
| van Tets & O'Connor , 1983 |
Hunter Island penguin is erroneously described as extinct penguin whose subfossil remains on the 5 km off the northwest coast of Tasmania nearby island Hunter Iceland in the Bass Strait were discovered. 35 years after the species was described, however, DNA analyzes of the bone fragments showed that these three existing penguin species can be assigned.
features
Hunter Island penguin is known of four bones in a midden of Aborigines were promoted at Hunter Iceland to days and in the museum today Launceston are. These bones consist of a pelvis , a synsacrum , a left tarsometatarsus, and a left raven bone of at least two individuals, one of which was a juvenile. The taxonomic status of this species is controversial. While the tarsometatarsus and the raven leg are indistinguishable from those of the rockhopper penguin , the posterior sacral vertebra of Tasidyptes hunteri , which has long, thin transverse processes, is an indication of a separate species. This penguin was probably not endemic to Hunter Island, but a wanderer from a breeding area that is still unknown today.
die out
The stratigraphic assignment of the bones of Tasidyptes hunteri is dated to the period between 1050 and 1392 AD. The exact time of extinction is not known. The species was hunted by the Tasmanians and it is possible that it survived until the late 18th century.
literature
- Gerard Frederick van Tets & Sue O'Connor: The Hunter Island penguin, an extinct new genus and species from a Tasmanian midden In: Records of the Queen Victoria Museum Launceston ; no.81 (Ed. CB Tassell), 1983, 13 pp.
- Daniel T. Ksepka & Tatsuro Ando: Penguins, Past, Present and Future: Trends in the Evolution of the Sphenisciformes In: Gareth Dyke, Gary Kaiser: Living Dinosaurs: The Evolutionary History of Modern Birds , John Wiley & Sons, 2011. ISBN 978 -047-065-666-2 , p. 178
- Michael P. Walters & Julian Pender Hume: Extinct Birds , Poyser Monographes A & C Black, 2012. ISBN 978-140-815-725-1 , pp. 57-58
Individual evidence
- Jump up ↑ Theresa L. Cole, Jonathan M. Waters, Lara D. Shepherd, Nicolas J. Rawlence, Leo Joseph: Ancient DNA reveals that the 'extinct' Hunter Island penguin (Tasidyptes hunteri) is not a distinct taxon . In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . doi : 10.1093 / zoolinnean / zlx043 ( oup.com [accessed August 17, 2017]).