Giant Hoopoe

Giant Hoopoe
Conservation status
Extinct  (Early 16th. century) (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Coraciiformes
Family:	Upupidae
Genus:	Upupa
Species:	U. antaios
Binomial name
Upupa antaios (Olson, 1975)
Location of Saint Helena
Synonyms
Upupa antaois (lapsus)

The Giant Hoopoe (Upupa antaios), also known as Saint Helena Giant Hoopoe or Saint Helena Hoopoe, is an extinct species of Hoopoe (family Upupidae), known exclusively from an incomplete subfossil skeleton.

It was endemic to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. It was much larger than its European and African relatives, and was completely flightless. The first analysis of this species was given in 1963 by the British zoologist Philip Ashmole, who discovered in the Dry Gut sediments in the east of Saint Helena a left Humerus which differed significantly from that of other Upupidae.

The incomplete skeleton which was found in 1975 by palaeontologist Storrs L. Olson consists of both coracoids and the left femur. It is presumed to have become extinct soon after Saint Helena was discovered and colonized in 1502, due to a combination of the introduction of predators such as black rats, and domestic cats, and habitat destruction.

As all known hoopoes are insectivores that feed primarily on large insects, the Giant Hoopoe may have been a predator of the Saint Helena Giant Earwig (Labidura herculeana), an insect which has not been seen alive since 1967.

References

• Storrs L. Olson. (1975). Paleornithology of St Helena Island, south Atlantic Ocean. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 23.

External links

• BirdLife International (2004). Upupa antaios. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 4 November 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is listed as extinct