Re: Tiny flightless birds (was Re: Cretaceous taeniodont)

[Christopher Taylor <ck.taylor@auckland.ac.nz>]

Sorry, not Sao Tome, _Emberiza alcoveri_ from Tenerife in the Canary
Islands:

http://www.ornitaxa.com/SM/Fossil/FossilFringilli.htm

On 8/4/04 8:57 am, "Christopher Taylor" <ck.taylor@auckland.ac.nz> wrote:

> On 7/4/04 2:49 pm, "Phil Bigelow" <bigelowp@juno.com> wrote:
>> On the other hand, how many shrew-sized flightless birds (fossil or
>> living) can we name?
>> 
> Not quite shrew-sized, but sparrow-sized or smaller - flightlessness evolved
> a couple of times in the endemic New Zealand Acanthisittidae. Subfossils
> _Pachyplichas yaldwyni_ (the stout-legged wren) and _Dendroscansor
> decurvirostris_ (the curve-billed wren) both had next to no wings. Another
> acanthisittid, _Traversia lyalli_ (the Stephens Island wren), is often
> described as flightless, but IIRC the only person to see it alive before it
> caught a case of terminal feline did actually note it flying at least once -
> they just didn't like to push themselves.
>   There is also another case of a flightless passeriform from Sao Tome or
> some other such backwater. Details are in T. H. Worthy and Holdaway's "The
> Lost World of the Moa".
>   Both these cases are from islands that lacked mammals before human
> discovery, and the arrival of rodents etc. spelt instant doom.
> 
>   Cheers,
> 
>       Christopher
> 
>