Accipiter quartus Balouet & Olson, 1989:7
Gracile 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 quartus:
"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
Last record: Holocene
Distribution
New Caledonia
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Holotype: NCP 990
Type locality: "Pindai Cave, Nepoui Peninsula, west coast of New Caledonia; 21°20'S, 164°57'E."
Paratypes:
NCP 991
NCP 992
NCP 993
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.