Manu (genus)

Manu Temporal range: Early Oligocene
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Subclass:	Neornithes
Infraclass:	Neognathae
Genus:	†Manu

Manu is a genus of prehistoric seabird. It lived during the Early Oligocene, and is known from a few fossil bones found in New Zealand. Its name derives from the Māori language, and is the common Polynesian term for "bird".

The remains appear like those of an ancestral albatross, and such birds were certainly around at that time (see Eopuffinus, Lonchodytes, Murunkus and Tytthostonyx) and presumably distributed globally. However, as few bones of Manu are known, its apparent similarity to the Procellariiformes might be only superficial. Given its considerable size and Paleogene age, it might just as well have been one of the smaller members of the huge pseudotooth birds (Pelagornithidae), perhaps comparable in size to the Early Eocene Odontopteryx toliapica.