Porzana ralphorum OIson & James, 1991:59

Great Oahu crake, Medium Oahu rail, Ralph's crake

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: 770 ± 70yBP (Harmon et al., 2026)

Distribution & Habitat

Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, USA

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Olson, Storrs L. and James, Helen F. (1991). Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part 1. Non-Passeriformes. Ornithological Monographs 45: 1-88.

Other references:

Harmon, Kristen C., Price, Melissa R. and Winter, Kawika B. (2026). The “regime shift extinctions” hypothesis and mass extinction of waterbirds in Hawaiʻi. Ecosphere 17: e70445. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70445

Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser. 544 pp.

James, Helen F. (1987). A late Pleistocene avifauna from the island of Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. Doc. Lab. Geol. Fac. Sci. Lyon 99: 221-230.

James, H. F., T. Stafford, D. Steadman, S. Olson, P. Martin, A. Jull, and P. McCoy. 1987. “Radiocarbon Dates on Bones of Extinct Birds from Hawaii.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 84: 2350-2354.

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.

Olson, S. L., and H. F. James. 1982. “Prodromus of the Fossil Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands.” Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 365: 1–59.

Olson, S. L., and H. F. James. 1984. “The Role of Polynesians in the Extinction of the Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands.” In Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, edited by P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein, 768–780. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

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.

https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/8662/porzana-ralphorum-great-ahu-crake

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