Aptornis defossor Owen, 1871:354
South Island adzebill, Aptornis, Ngutu Hahau (Māori)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Aptornis bulleri Owen, 1887 (Jul.): in Buller, History of the Birds of N.Z., 2nd edition 1 (part 1): 23 – Albury, South Canterbury.
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Holocene
Distribution
South Island, New Zealand
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
Above: South Island Adzebill. Aptornis defossor. 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 (2006-0010-1/41)
References
Original scientific description:
Owen, Richard. (1870). On Dinornis (Part XV): Containing a description of the skull, femur, tibia, fibula, and metatarsus of Aptornis defossor, Owen, from near Oamuru, Middle Island, New Zealand; with additional observations on Aptornis otidiformis, on Notornis mantelli, and on Dinornis curtus. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 7: 353-380. [pp. 352-380, plates 40-44?]
Other references:
Allentoft, M. E., Scofield, R. P., Oskam, C. L.,Hale, M. L., Holdaway, Richard N. and Bunce, M. (2011). A molecular characterization of a newly discovered megafaunal fossil site in North Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 42(4): 241-256.
Andrews, C. W. (1896). Note on a nearly complete Skeleton of Aptornis defossor Owen. Geol. Mag. 3(6): 241-242. [[url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5119072]Abstract[/url]]
Boast, Alexander P. et al. (2019). Mitochondrial Genomes from New Zealand’s Extinct Adzebills (Aves: Aptornithidae: Aptornis) Support a Sister-Taxon Relationship with the Afro-Madagascan Sarothruridae. Diversity 11(2): 24.
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. 178]
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. 54]
Holdaway, Richard N. (2021). Mind the gap: potential implications of the chronology of the South Island adzebill (Aptornis defossor) (Aves: Aptornithidae) at Pyramid Valley, North Canterbury. Notornis 68(4): 294-298.
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(2): 119-187.
Houde, P.; Cooper, A.; Leslie, E.; Shand, A. E.; Montano, G. A. 1997: Phylogeny and evolution of 12S rDNA in gruiformes (Aves). Pp. 117-154 In: Mindell, D. P. ed. Avian molecular evolution and systematics. San Diego, Academic Press. 382 pp.
Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser. 544 pp.
Livezey, Bradley C. (1994). The carpometacarpus of Apterornis. Notornis 41(1): 51-60.
Livezey, Bradley C. (1998). A phylogenetic analysis of the Gruiformes (Aves) based on morphological characters, with an emphasis on the rails (Rallidae). Phil.Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 353: 2077-2151.
Musser, Grace M. and Cracraft, Joel. (2019). A New Morphological Dataset Reveals a Novel Relationship for the Adzebills of New Zealand (Aptornis) and Provides a Foundation for Total Evidence Neoavian Phylogenetics. American Museum Novitates 3927: 1-70. [Abstract]
Olson, Storrs L. (1977). A synopsis of the fossil Rallidae, pp. 339-373. In: Ripley, S. D. Rails of the World. Boston: Godine.
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OPINION 1874. [url=http://biostor.org/reference/5459]Aptornis Owen, 1848 (Aves): conserved as the correct original spelling[/url]. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 54(2): 142-143, 1997.
Owen, Richard. (1872). On Dinornis (Part XVIII): containing a Description of the Sternum and Pelvis, with an attempted restoration of Aptornis defossor, Ow. Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., 8: 119-126.
Parker, W. K. (1866). On the structure and development of the skull in the ostrich tribe. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London clvi: 113.
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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. 148]
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)]
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