A new fossil species of kiwi

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Michael Szabo
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A new fossil species of kiwi

Postby Michael Szabo » Thu May 06, 2021 7:01 am

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

Alan Tennyson and Barbara Tomotani, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Historical Biology, 23 April 2021.

Abstract: 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.

Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... 273pcOPXZU
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