Eyles's harrier

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Eyles's harrier
Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene
Profile of fossillised skull of Eyles' harrier.
Eyles's harrier skull held at Te Papa, Wellington

Extinct (~1400s) (NZ TCS)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Circus
Species:
†C. teauteensis
Binomial name
†Circus teauteensis
Forbes, 1892
Synonyms

Circus hamiltoni (nomen nudum)
Circus eylesi (nomen nudum, but see text)

Eyles's harrier (Circus teauteensis) (

endemic to New Zealand.[3][4]

Name

This species was named after Jim Eyles, paleontologist and former director of the Nelson Provincial Museum and the West Coast Museum.

Description

It was an example of island gigantism, as an adult female weighed around 2.5 to 3 kg (5.5 to 6.6 lb), over twice as much as a swamp harrier.[5][6] Its shape differed from that of most other harriers, and it was initially mistaken for a huge hawk, possibly a giant Accipiter.

Ecology

It was a generalist predator, taking prey of the same size as small eagle species do: land animals weighing one or a few kilograms. In its hunting strategy, however, it was more adapted to avian prey, as aside from bats, mammals were entirely absent from New Zealand. Presumably, it hunted diurnal birds in a manner similar to goshawks.

Taxonomy

Eyles' harrier was presumably somewhat similar to the living spotted harrier, its closest living relative, from which it diverged around 2.4 million years ago.[7]

The

BMNH) he explicitly stated that Forbes' names were both invalid. In addition, harrier bones of comparatively recent age in the collection of Walter Mantell, assigned to C. gouldi (an obsolete name of C. approximans) by Richard Lydekker, seem to be of a more robust bird judging from the published descriptions; this material may now be lost, but all things considered it is not unlikely to be the first remains of Eyles' harrier known to science.[8]

Extinction

The modern

competitively exclude one another, and only when the endemic Eyles' harrier became extinct could C. approximans become established.[8]

References
  1. ^ "Circus teauteensis. NZTCS". nztcs.org.nz. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Eyles' harrier | Kērangi | New Zealand Birds Online". nzbirdsonline.org.nz. Retrieved 2023-11-26.
  3. ^ "Eyles' harrier | New Zealand Birds Online". www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-909010-21-8
    .
  5. ^ Holdaway, R. N. (1989). New Zealand’s pre-human avifauna and its vulnerability. New Zealand journal of ecology, 12(supplement), 11-25.
  6. doi:10.1080/03014223.1997.9518107
    . Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  7. S2CID 73420145
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-253-34034-9

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Circus eylesi.
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