A new fossil species of kiwi (Aves: Apterygidae) from the mid-Pleistocene of New Zealand

TY - JOUR

T1 - A new fossil species of kiwi (Aves: Apterygidae) from the mid-Pleistocene of New Zealand

AU - Tennyson, Alan James Drummond

AU - Tomotani, Barbara Mizumo

N1 - 7212, AnE

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - We describe Apteryx littoralis sp. nov., a new species of kiwi based on a 1-million-year-old tarsometatarsus from shallow marine sediment in the North Island of New Zealand. The fossil is very similar to the tarsometatarsi of living kiwi species, most closely resembling Apteryx rowi and A. mantelli in size and shape, but differs in being stouter, with proportionally narrower proximal and distal ends. The new fossil is the second oldest known record of kiwi. It demonstrates a relatively conservative kiwi morphology since the mid-Pleistocene. http://zoobank.org/References/cefc907d-0c1d-44dc-83c5-5799f5d6d3d2.

AB - We describe Apteryx littoralis sp. nov., a new species of kiwi based on a 1-million-year-old tarsometatarsus from shallow marine sediment in the North Island of New Zealand. The fossil is very similar to the tarsometatarsi of living kiwi species, most closely resembling Apteryx rowi and A. mantelli in size and shape, but differs in being stouter, with proportionally narrower proximal and distal ends. The new fossil is the second oldest known record of kiwi. It demonstrates a relatively conservative kiwi morphology since the mid-Pleistocene. http://zoobank.org/References/cefc907d-0c1d-44dc-83c5-5799f5d6d3d2.

KW - Apteryx littoralis sp. nov

KW - Apteryx mantelli

KW - Apteryx rowi

KW - tarsometatarsus

KW - international

KW - Plan_S-Compliant_NO

U2 - 10.1080/08912963.2021.1916011

DO - 10.1080/08912963.2021.1916011

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85104826062

SN - 0891-2963

VL - 34

SP - 352

EP - 360

JO - Historical Biology

JF - Historical Biology

IS - 2

ER -