Megapodius amissus Worthy, 2000:342

Lost megapode, Viti Levu scrubfowl, Fijian megapode

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: Late Quaternary

A terrestrial bird known to Viti Levu islanders as the "sasa" (Bahr, 1912; Wood & Wetmore, 1926) may have constituted surviving individuals of [i]Megapodius amissus[/i] (Tyrberg, 2009), which is at present only known from subfossil remains (Worthy, 2000). These may be the same records from the nineteenth century mentioned by (Watling, 1982).

A record of a possible megapode on Kadavu island from 10 September 1970 (Blackburn, 1971) may refer to this taxon.

Distribution

Viti Levu (& Kadavu?), Fiji

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

Holotype: NMNZ S37468 ("right tarsometatarsus"*)

Type locality: "Udit Cave, Wainibuku, Viti Levu, Fiji; [precise co-ordinates given]"

Paratypes:

For a detailed list of paratypic material see (Worthy, 2000:344,346).

Referred material:

Only a few bones were referred to Megapodius amissus as compared with the several dozen made paratypes. See (Worthy, 2000:346) for the particulars.

* Acession lot MNZ S37468 contains several bones, but only the right tarsometatarsus has been designated as the holotype. The rest of the material was designated as paratypic.

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Worthy, Trevor H. (2000). The fossil megapodes (Aves: Megapodiidae) of Fiji with descriptions of a new genus and two new species. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 30(4): 337-364. [pp. 337-354?]

Other references:

Bahr, P. H. (1912). On a Journey to the Fiji Islands, with Notes on the present Status of their Avifauna, made during a Year's Stay in the Group, 1910-1911. The Ibis 9(6): 282-313.

Blackburn, A. (1971). Some notes on Fijian birds. Notornis 18(3): 147-174.

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)]

Tennyson, Alan J. D. and Bartle, J. A. (2008). Catalogue of type specimens of birds in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Tuhinga 19: 185-207.

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.

Watling, D. (1982). Birds of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Millwood Press.

Wood, C. A. and Wetmore, Alexander. (1926). A collection of birds from the Fiji Islands. Part III. Field observations. Ibis 56: 91-136.

Worthy, Trevor H. (2004). The fossil rails (Aves: Rallidae) of Fiji with descriptions of a new genus and species. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 34(3): 295-314.

Worthy, Trevor H. and Anderson, Atholl. (2009). Results of palaeofaunal research, pp. 41-62. In: Clark, Geoffrey Richard and Anderson, Atoll (eds.). The Early Prehistory of Fiji. Terra Australis 31. Canberra: ANU E Press. 437 pp.

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