Anas chathamica, the Chatham duck or Chatham Island duck is an extinct species of duck which once lived in New Zealand's Chatham Islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean. It likely became extinct in about the 16th century because of hunting by humans.[1]
Taxonomy
The species was formerly placed in a monotypic genus Pachyanas. However, analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from subfossil remains[2] showed that the Chatham duck was not, in fact, closely related to shelducks but instead belongs in the genus Anas: the dabbling ducks. Its closest living relatives appear to be the Auckland teal, Campbell teal and the brown teal from New Zealand.
Description
It was described by Walter Oliver (as a "stoutly built duck") from bird bones in the collection of the Canterbury Museum in 1955 in the second edition of his work New Zealand Birds.[3] Some authors have suggested that the Chatham duck was flightless;[4] however, comparison of Chatham duck wing bones with those from living ducks indicates no disproportional reduction in wing length.[2]
References
- ^ Tennyson, A.; Martinson, P. (2006). Extinct Birds of New Zealand. Wellington: Te Papa Press. ISBN 978-0-909010-21-8.
- ^ a b Mitchell, Kieren J.; Wood, Jamie R.; Scofield, R. Paul; Llamas, Bastien; Cooper, Alan (2014). "Ancient mitochondrial genome reveals unsuspected taxonomic affinity of the extinct Chatham duck (Pachyanas chathamica) and resolves divergence times for New Zealand and sub-Antarctic brown teals". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 70: 420–428. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.08.017. PMID 23994164.
- ^ Oliver, W.R.B. (1955). New Zealand Birds. Wellington: Reed. ISBN 978-0-589-00851-2.
- ^ Shugart, H.H. (2007). How the Earthquake Bird Got Its Name and Other Tales of an Unbalanced Nature. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12270-1.
External links
- Chatham Island Duck Pachyanas chathamica by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
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