FRINGILLIDAE gen. et sp. indet. 'Madeira'
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: cf. Acanthis sp. nov. 'Madeira' (Pieper, 1985:3); aff. Carduelis undescribed species (Tyrberg, 2009:104); Carduelis sp. nov. 'Madeira' (Rando et al. 2010)
The first report of extinct, undescribed species of fringillids from Madeira seems to be (Pieper, 1985:3). However, though he mentioned finding several species amongst the "several thousand bird bones" he collected, he was not explicit as to how many of these represent undescribed extinct forms. Instead merely commenting that he was "able to identify various species of Fringillidae" and that "we have proof of other thick-billed finches of at least one new species related to the genus [i]Acanthis[/i]." He was cited by (Rando et al. 2010) as reporting on a new species of the genus [i]Carduelis[/i], however he never mentions that genus at all in his paper. Illera (et al. 2012) was taxonomically conservative, mentioning only "Fringillidae sp." from Madeira, presumably based upon the same or similar bones.
The enigmatic Goniaphea leucocephala described by (Bowdlich, 1825) may be a fringillid native to Madeira but now extinct (Pieper, 1983:3-4), as its description seemingly cannot be matched to any known species, and the figured head published in (Bowdlich, 1825) looks fringillid-like. It is possible that it is one and the same as cf. Acanthis sp. nov. mentioned by (Pieper, 1985:3), and hence is an historical record of that now presumed extinct species. But at this time it is not known how many species of Fringillidae have become extinct on Madeira, all presumably endemic. But based upon (Pieper, 1985:3) there was at least one, and possibly two.
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Holocene?
Distribution
Madeira, Portugal
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Bowdich, T. E. (1825). Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo during the autum of 1823, while on his third voyage to Africa. London: George B. Whittacker. [published posthumously]
Illera, Juan Carlos et al. (2012). Age, origins and extinctions of the avifauna of Macaronesia: a synthesis of phylogenetic and fossil information. Quaternary Science Reviews 50: 14-22.
Pieper, Harald. (1985). The fossil land birds of Madeira and Porto Santo. Bocagiana 88: 1-6.
Rando, J. C., Alcover, J. A. and Illera, J. C. (2010). Disentangling Ancient Interactions: A New Extinct Passerine Provides Insights on Character Displacement among Extinct and Extant Island Finches. PLoS ONE 5(9): e12956.
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.