Accipiter efficax Balouet & Olson, 1989:6
Powerful goshawk
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Anderson et. al. (2010) hesitated at accepting the distinctiveness of this taxon based upon the fact that (Balouet & Olson, 1989) did not perform adequate comparisons with other taxa, only using a small sample size when establishing Accipiter efficax:
"Balouet & Olson (1989) described two Accipiter species (Accipiter quartus and A. efficax) on the basis of fossils that were slightly larger than the extant A. haplochrous and A. fasciatus, respectively. Given the intraspecific variability in extant raptor size and taking into account that only a few fasciatus (none from New Caledonia) and few haplochrous specimens were examined, then these determinations are suspect"
(Anderson et. al. 2010; 101)
Conservation Status
Extinct
Distribution
New Caledonia
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Holotype: NCP 1100
Type locality: "Pindai Cave, Nepoui Peninsula, west coast of New Caledonia; 21°20'S, 164°57'E."
Paratypes:
NCP 1101
NCP 1102
NCP 1103
NCP 1104
NCP 1105
NCP 1106
NCP 1107
NCP 1108
NCP 1109
NCP 1110
NCP 1111
NCP 1112
NCP 1113
NCP 1114
NCP 1115
NCP 1116
NCP 1117
NCP 1118
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Balouet, Jean Christophe and Olson, Storrs L. (1989). Fossil Birds from Late Quaternary Deposits in New Caledonia. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 469: 1-38, 16 figures, 13 tables.
Other references:
Anderson, Atholl, Sand, Christophe, Petchey, Fiona and Worthy, Trevor H. (2010). Faunal Extinction and Human Habitation in New Caledonia: Initial Results and Implications of New Research at the Pindai Caves. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 1(1): 89-109.
Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser. 544 pp.
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.