New species find in Central Otago confirms link between Australian and South American shorebirds

New species find in Central Otago confirms link between Australian and South American shorebirds
Date:October 20, 2015 Source:Taylor & Francis

It is commonly known that birds evolved from dinosaurs. But what happened next? Today, shorebirds (otherwise known as waders) live in a wide variety of environments worldwide, from the Himalayas to Antarctica. With their long legs, shorebirds have long been a subject of evolutionary discussion, but where did they originate and how did they diverge into so many habitats across the globe? Due to a poor fossil record, these questions remain largely unanswered. However, a new article published in Journal of Systematic Palaeontology sheds new light on this mystery.


A new piece in this evolutionary puzzle has been presented by an international team of New Zealand and Australian-based scientists, including researchers at Canterbury Museum, who have confirmed that a 19-16 million-year-old shorebird fossil, discovered in Central Otago, New Zealand, belongs to a group of small birds including the Australian Plains-wanderer and the South American Seedsnipes.

The new species, Hakawai melvillei, is named after a 'mystery bird' in Māori mythology and in honour of New Zealand-based ornithologist and ecologist David Melville.

Hakawai melvillei was a small wading bird that lived about 19 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, around an ancient subtropical lake on the edge of a floodplain, with many other waterbirds, waterfowl, crocodilians and bats. The finding of individuals at chick or near fledging stage (known from their bone surface texture) shows that Hakawai melvillei was breeding in New Zealand and was not migratory, unlike many birds of this group today.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151020091834.htm