Necropsar rodericanus Slater in Günther & Newton, 1879
Rodrigues starling
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Fregilupus rodericanus Slater in Günther & Newton, 1879; Testudophaga bicolor Hachisuka, 1937; Timaliidae gen. et. sp. indet. (see Safford & Hawkins, 2013)
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 1726 (Tyrberg, 2009:103)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
Known only from subfossil bones (Slater in Günther & Newton, 1879). There also exists a report of a bird encountered on the offshore Islet au Mât (Newton, 1875) which fits the presumable description of a starling.
Distribution
Rodrigues (including offshore Islet au Mât?), Mascarene Islands
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Slater, H. H. in: Günther, Albert and Newton, Alfred. (1879). The Extinct Birds of Rodriguez. Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. 168: 423-437.
Other references:
BirdLife International. (2008). Necropsar rodericanus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 16 July 2011.
BirdLife International. 2016. Necropsar rodericanus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22710836A94263302. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22710836A94263302.en. Downloaded on 27 June 2021.
Brodkorb, Pierce. (1978). Catalogue of fossil birds. Part 5 (Passeriformes). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Science 23 (1978): 139-228.
Brooks, T. 2000. Extinct species. In: BirdLife International (ed.), Threatened Birds of the World, pp. 701-708. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge, U.K.
Cheke, A.S. 1987. An ecological history of the Mascarene Islands, with particular reference to extinctions and introductions of land vertebrates. In: Diamond, A.W. (ed.), Studies of Mascarene island birds, pp. 5-89. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Cheke, Anthony S. (2013). Extinct birds of the Mascarenes and Seychelles - a review of the causes of extinction in the light of an important new publication on extinct birds. Phelsuma 21: 4-19.
Cheke, Anthony S. and Hume, Julian Pender. (2008). Lost Land of the Dodo: An Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion & Rodrigues. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 464 pp.
Cowles, G. S. 1987. The fossil record. In: Diamond, A.W. (ed.), Studies of Mascarene Island birds, pp. 90-100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Dupon, J. F. (1973). Relation de lisle Rodrigue [sic]. Texte attribué à Tafforet, circa. 1726. Proc. Roy. Soc. Arts. Sci. Mauritius 4: 1-16.
Fuller, Errol. (1988). Extinct Birds. New York: Facts on File Publications. 256 pp.
Günther, A. and Newton, Edward. (1879). The Extinct Birds of Rodriguez. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 168: 423-437, plates 41-43.
Hachisuka, M. (1937). Extinct chough from Rodriguez. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 50: 211-214.
Hume, Julian Pender. (2013). A synopsis of the pre-human avifauna of the Mascarene Islands, pp. 195-237. In: Göhlich, U.B. & Kroh, A. (eds.). Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution. Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien.
Hume, Julian Pender. (2014). Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius. Zootaxa 3849 (1): 1-75. [Abstract]
Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser. 544 pp.
Newton, A. (1875). Additional evidence as to the original fauna of Rodriguez. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1875: 39-43.
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. 5, pl. 2]
Safford, Roger and Hawkins, Frank (eds.). (2013). The Birds of Africa: Volume VIII: The Malagasy Region: Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, Mascarenes. A & C Black.
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)]
Tafforet, J. (c.1726). Relation de l'Isle Rodrigue. Anonymous MS in the Archives Nationales, Paris.
Vargas, Pablo. (2023). Exploring ‘endangered living fossils’ (ELFs) among monotypic genera of plants and animals of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11: 1100503. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1100503
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/8836/necropsar-rodericanus-rodrigues-starling