Anas chathamica

Anas chathamica Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene
Skull of Anas chathamica from the Te Papa collections
Conservation status
Extinct  (16th century)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Genus:	Anas
Species:	†A. chathamica
Binomial name
†Anas chathamica Oliver, 1955

Anas chathamica, the Chatham duck or Chatham Island duck, is an extinct species of duck which once lived in New Zealand's Chatham Islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean. It likely became extinct around the 16th century due to humans hunting. ^[1]

Taxonomy

The species was formerly placed in a monotypic genus, Pachyanas. However, analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from subfossil remains ^[2] showed that the Chatham duck was not, in fact, closely related to shelducks but instead belongs in the genus Anas : the dabbling ducks. Its closest living relatives appear to be the Auckland teal, Campbell teal and the brown teal from New Zealand.

Description

It was described by Walter Oliver (as a "stoutly built duck") from bird bones in the collection of the Canterbury Museum in 1955 in the second edition of his work New Zealand Birds. ^[3] Some authors have suggested that the Chatham duck was flightless; ^[4] however, comparison of Chatham duck wing bones with those from living ducks indicates no disproportional reduction in wing length. ^[2]

References

1. Tennyson, A.; Martinson, P. (2006). Extinct Birds of New Zealand. Wellington: Te Papa Press. ISBN   978-0-909010-21-8.
2. Mitchell, Kieren J.; Wood, Jamie R.; Scofield, R. Paul; Llamas, Bastien; Cooper, Alan (2014). "Ancient mitochondrial genome reveals unsuspected taxonomic affinity of the extinct Chatham duck (Pachyanas chathamica) and resolves divergence times for New Zealand and sub-Antarctic brown teals". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 70: 420–428. Bibcode:2014MolPE..70..420M. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.08.017. PMID   23994164.
3. Oliver, W.R.B. (1974) [1955]. New Zealand Birds. Wellington: Reed. ISBN   978-0-589-00851-2.
4. Shugart, H.H. (2007). How the Earthquake Bird Got Its Name and Other Tales of an Unbalanced Nature . Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-12270-1.

External links

• Chatham Island Duck Pachyanas chathamica by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006