Oceanic eclectus
| Oceanic eclectus parrot Temporal range: Late Pleistocene and Holocene
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| A 1793 drawing of a parrot believed to be the extinct Oceanic eclectus parrot (Eclectus infectus). | |
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| Species: | E. infectus
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| Eclectus infectus Steadman, 2006
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The Oceanic eclectus parrot [1] (Eclectus infectus) is an extinct parrot species which occurred on Tonga, Vanuatu and possibly on Fiji. The only living relative in the genus is the eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus) which has proportionally larger wings than the Oceanic eclectus parrot. The fossil material unearthed in November 1989 in Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits on 'Eua, Lifuka, 'Uiha and Vanuatu and described in 2006 by David William Steadman include a complete femur, five radii, a quadrate bone, a mandible, a coracoid, two sterna, two humeri, two ulnae, two tibiotarsi, a carpometacarpus, a tarsometatarsus, and three pedal phalanges.[2]
The Oceanic eclectus parrot went extinct on Tonga during the early settlement 3000 years ago, presumably due to human-caused factors. On Vava'u, it may have survived into historic times because among the drawings which were created in 1793 during Alessandro Malaspina's Pacific expedition, there is one sketch which appears to portray an Oceanic eclectus parrot.[3]
References
- ^ Steadman, David William (2006): Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-77142-3
- ^ Steadman, David William: A New Species of Extinct Parrot (Psittacidae: Eclectus) from Tonga and Vanuatu, South Pacific; Pacific Science - Volume 60, Number 1, January 2006, p. 137-145 PDF Fulltext
- ^ Olson, S. L: Birds, including extinct species, encountered by the Malaspina Expedition on Vava’u, Tonga, in 1793. PDF Fulltext