Fossil Birds of New Zealand This Appendix Lists Birds Recorded As Fossils in New Zealand from Sediments Older Than the Middle Pleistocene (≥1 Ma)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Text extracted from Gill B.J.; Bell, B.D.; Chambers, G.K.; Medway, D.G.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, T.H. 2010. Checklist of the birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. 4th edition. Wellington, Te Papa Press and Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Pages 323, 326 & 329. Fossil Birds of New Zealand This Appendix lists birds recorded as fossils in New Zealand from sediments older than the Middle Pleistocene (≥1 Ma). It therefore includes material from the Kaimatira Pumice Sand of the Kai Iwi Group (Oxygen Isotope Stage 25–27, c. 1 Ma) found at Marton (Worthy 1997a). All younger fossil birds are members of the Recent fauna, are of species that persisted to human arrival and are covered in the main text. The pre-Pleistocene record of birds in New Zealand has until recently comprised mainly penguins, as reviewed by Fordyce (1991b). No marine taxa other than penguins and pelagornithids had been described, but rare procellariid bones were known (Worthy & Holdaway 2002). The record of Tertiary terrestrial avifauna was until recently restricted to two undescribed anatids from the Miocene of Otago (Fordyce 1991b). Renewed investigations of the Miocene deposits at St Bathans, Otago, have recovered a rich avifauna from lacustrine deposits comprising at least 24 taxa (Worthy et al. 2007). In addition to the taxa named below (a diving petrel and several waterfowl), the St Bathans Fauna includes the following unnamed taxa: ratite (eggshell), two rails (Rallidae), a possible aptornithid (?Aptornithidae), three parrots (Psittacidae), an eagle (Accipitridae), two pigeons (Columbidae), at least three waders (Charadriiformes), and several passerines (Passeriformes). The ages of several taxa have been revised in line with the revision of the New Zealand geological timescale (Cooper 2004). Order SPHENISCIFORMES: Penguins Family SPHENISCIDAE Bonaparte: Penguins Spheniscidae Bonaparte, 1831: Giornale Arcadico di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 49: 62 – Type genus Spheniscus Brisson, 1760. We list all fossil penguins in Spheniscidae, not following Clarke et al. (2003) or Ksepka et al. (2006) in restricting the family just to the common ancestor of living taxa and its descendants. Our reasons are: (1) the order Sphenisciformes has long been considered to have just a single family in which all fossil taxa have been included (e.g. Simpson 1946, Brodkorb 1963); and (2) Tambussi et al. (2005) placed Crossvallia from the Late Palaeocene of Seymour Island in Spheniscidae, thereby effectively expanding the definition of Spheniscidae as given by, for example, Simpson (1946), Myrcha et al. (2002), and Jadwiszczak (2006a), who had referred all known fossil penguins (Eocene–Recent) to one family. New Zealand has a rich record of fossil penguins (16 named species, at least three undescribed taxa) extending from the Palaeogene (Palaeocene, Eocene, Oligocene; 65.0–23.8 Ma) through to the Neogene (Miocene–Holocene) of the Tertiary as reviewed by Fordyce (1991a,b) and Fordyce & Jones (1990). The Australian fossil record of penguins is sparse with four named and four indeterminate species (Fordyce 1991a). Exceedingly rich records of fossil penguins are known from the Eocene of Seymour Island (e.g. Myrcha et al. 2002 and references therein); Patagonia in Argentina (Simpson 1972a, 1981; Cione & Tonni 1981; Cozzuol et al. 1993; Acosta-Hospitaleche et al. 2004); Chile (Walsh & Hume 2001); and Peru (Noriega & Tambussi 1989, Stucchi 2002, Stucchi et al. 2003, Acosta-Hospitaleche & Stucchi 2005). To date, no species or genera overlap in ranges between New Zealand and South America (Acosta- Hospitaleche et al. 2004) and there is only limited co-occurrence of genera in Seymour Island, Australia and New Zealand (Fordyce 1991a,b; Myrcha et al. 2002). Common names of fossil species follow Gill & Martinson (1991) but “Simpson’s penguin” is used here for the first time. Genus † Korora Marples Korora Marples, 1952: New Zealand Geol. Surv. Pal. Bull. 20: 43 – Type species (by original designation) Korora oliveri Marples. † Korora oliveri Marples Oliver’s Penguin Korora oliveri Marples, 1952: New Zealand Geol. Surv. Pal. Bull. 20: 43 – Hakataramea Valley, South Canterbury. Waitakian Stage (Late Oligocene–Early Miocene; 25.2–21.7 Ma); Hakataramea Valley, South Island (Marples 1952; Fordyce & Jones 1990; Fordyce 1991a,b). .