Cnemiornis calcitrans Owen, 1866:396
South Island goose, Flightless goose
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Cnemiornis minor Forbes, 1892:185
Conservation Status
Extinct
Distribution
South Island, New Zealand
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
Above: South Island Goose. Cnemiornis calcitrans. From the series: Extinct Birds of New Zealand., 2004, Masterton, by Paul Martinson. Purchased 2006. © Te Papa. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Te Papa (2006-0010-1/27)
References
Original scientific description:
Owen, R. (1866). On Dinornis (part X): containing a description of part of the skeleton of a flightless bird indicative of a new genus and species (Cnemiornis calcitrans, Ow.). Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. 5: 395-404.
Other references:
Chapman, B. (1986). Bone remains in Kings Cave, Cave, South Canterbury. N.Z. Speleological Bulletin 7(135): 440-444.
Checklist Committee (OSNZ). (2010). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica (4th ed.). Ornithological Society of New Zealand & Te Papa Press, Wellington. [p. 35]
Checklist Committee (OSNZ). (2022). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand (5th edition). Ornithological Society of New Zealand Occasional Publication No. 1. Wellington: Ornithological Society of New Zealand. [p. 27]
Clark, Geoffrey R., Petchey, Peter, McGlone, Matthew S. and Bristow, Peter. (1996). Faunal and Floral Remains from Earnscleugh Cave, Central Otago, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 26(3): 363-380. [Abstract]
Forbes, H. O. (1892). Preliminary notice of additions to the extinct avifauna of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 24: 185-189.
Gill, Brian and Martinson, Paul. (1991). New Zealand's extinct birds. New Zealand: Random Century.
Hector, J. (1873). On Cnemiornis calcitrans, showing its affinity to the Natatores. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. [incomplete reference]
Hector, J. (1874). On Cnemiornis calcitrans, Owen, showing its affinity to the Lamellirostrate Natatores. Trans. Proc. N. Z. Inst. 6: 76-84.
Holdaway, Richard N., Worthy, Trevor H. and Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2001). A working list of breeding bird species of the New Zealand region at first human contact. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 28: 119-187.
Johnston, A. G., Duffy, B. C. and Holdaway, Richard N. (2022). When the lonely goose? Implications of a revised history of the lake and its surrounding vegetation for a radiocarbon age for the only South Island goose (Cnemiornis calcitrans) from the Pyramid Valley lake bed deposit, New Zealand. Notornis 69(1): 19-36.
Livezey, Bradley C. (1989). Phylogenetic relationships of several subfossil anseriformes of New Zealand. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History, The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas 128: 1-25.
Owen, R. (1875). On Dinornis (part XX): containing a restoration of the skeleton of Cnemiornis calcitrans, Ow., with remarks on its affinities in the lamellirostral group.Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. 9: 253-292.
Rawlence, N. J., Wood, J. R., Scofield, R. P., Fraser, C. and Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2012). Soft-tissue specimens from pre-European extinct birds of New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand iFirst 2012: 1-28.
Robertson, H. A., Baird, K. A., Elliott, G. P., Hitchmough, R. A., McArthur, N. J., Makan, T. D., Miskelly, Colin M., O’Donnell, C. F. J., Sagar, P. M., Scofield, R. P., Taylor, G. A. and Michel, P. (2021). Conservation status of birds in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 36. Department of Conservation, Wellington. 43 pp.
Hugh Robertson, John Dowding, Graeme Elliott, Rod Hitchmough, Colin Miskelly, Colin O’Donnell, Ralph Powlesland, Paul Sagar, Paul Scofield, Graeme Taylor. (2013). Conservation status of New Zealand birds, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 4. 22 pp.
Rothschild, Lionel Walter. (1907). Extinct birds: an attempt to write in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times, that is within the last six or seven hundred years: to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction. London: Hutchinson & Co. XXIX + 243 pp. [p. 97]
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)]
Tennyson AJD and Martinson P (2006) Extinct Birds of New Zealand. Te Papa Press, Wellington.
Trotter, M. M. (1965). Avian remains from North Otago archaeological sites. Notornis 12(3): 176-178.
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Watanabe, Junya. (2017). Quantitative discrimination of flightlessness in fossil Anatidae from skeletal proportions. The Auk 134(3): 672-695.
Williams, G. R. (1962). Extinction and the land and freshwater-inhabiting birds of New Zealand. Notornis 10(1): 15-32.
Worthy, Trevor H. (1998). Quaternary fossil faunas of Otago, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 28(3): 421-521. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1998.9517573 [p. 457]
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Worthy, T.H. 1999b. What was on the menu? Avian extinction in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 19: 125-160.
Worthy, Trevor H. and Holdaway, Richard N. (1993). Quaternary fossil faunas from caves in the Punakaiki area, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 23(3): 147-254.
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Trevor H. Worthy, Richard N. Holdaway, M. D. Sorenson and A. C. Cooper. (1997). Description of the first complete skeleton of the extinct New Zealand goose Cnemiornis calcitrans (Aves: Anatidae), and a reassessment of the relationships of Cnemiornis. Journal of Zoology, London 243(4): 695-718. [pagination at top of the first page is incorrect]
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