The Chatham raven (''Corvus moriorum'') is a prehistoric
raven
A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned ...
formerly native to the
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ) ( Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about t ...
(
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
). The closely related
New Zealand raven
The New Zealand raven (''Corvus antipodum'') was native to the North Island and South Island of New Zealand but has been extinct since the 16th century. There were two subspecies: the North Island raven (''Corvus antipodum antipodum'') and the So ...
, ''C. antipodum'' occurred in the
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''no ...
and
South Islands of New Zealand. ''C. antipodum'' was formerly included in ''C. moriorum'', and later considered a distinct
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
, however in 2017 genetic research determined that the two raven populations were
subspecies rather than separate species, having only split 130,000 years ago.
A reconstruction of the raven is in the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
, specimen MNZ S.036749.
Description and ecology
The Chatham raven was significantly larger than the New Zealand raven, and probably the world's fourth- or fifth-largest
passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...
. They had long, broad bills that were not as arched as those of some of the
Hawaiian crows (''C. hawaiiensis''). Presumably, they were black all over like all their close relatives. There do not seem to be recorded oral traditions of this sub-species – most of the
Moriori people, after whom this sub-species was named, were eventually killed or enslaved by
Māori explorers, and little of their
natural history knowledge has been preserved. Thus, it cannot be completely ruled out that like some
congeners they had partially white or grey plumage (see also
Pied raven
The pied raven (''Corvus corax varius'' morpha ''leucophaeus'') is an extinct colour morph of the North Atlantic subspecies of the common raven which was only found on the Faroe Islands and was last seen in 1902. It had large areas of white feath ...
).
Remains of Chatham ravens are most common in coastal sites on the Chatham Islands. On the coast, it may have frequented the seal and
penguin
Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...
colonies or fed in the
intertidal zone
The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...
, as does the
Tasmanian forest raven (''C. tasmanicus''). It may also have depended on fruit, like the
New Caledonian crow (''C. moneduloides''), but it is difficult to understand why a fruit eater would have been most common in coastal forest and shrubland when fruit was distributed throughout the forest.
See also
*
List of extinct animals of New Zealand
*
Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
Late Quaternary prehistoric birds are avian taxa that became extinct during the Late Quaternary – the Holocene or Late Pleistocene – and before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by ornit ...
References
* Gill, B. J. 2003. "Osteometry and systematics of the extinct New Zealand ravens (Aves: Corvidae: Corvus)". ''Journal of Systematic Palaeontology'' 1: 43–58.
* Scofield, R. P., Mitchell K.J., Wood, J.R., De Pietri, V.L., Jarvie, S., Llamas, B., Cooper, A., 2017. "The origin and phylogenetic relationships of the New Zealand ravens" in Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, Vol.106, p. 136-143. ;
* Worthy, T.H., Holdaway R.N., 2002, ''The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand'', Indiana University Press, Bloomington. .
External links
''Chatham Islands Raven. Corvus moriorum.''by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'', by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
Corvus
Extinct birds of the Chatham Islands
Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
Ravens
Holocene extinctions
Fossil taxa described in 1892
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