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Post by another specialist on Sept 4, 2008 6:41:51 GMT
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Post by adzebill on Sept 9, 2008 22:49:08 GMT
Sauzier's wood rail
Knonw from bones found on Mauritius and formerly attributed to Dryolimnas cuvieri, but recent work by Julian Pender Hume (unpublished yet) has confirmed these bones are in fact from a distinct large endemic Dryolimnas.
Maybe a straight-billed rail reported by some early visitors on the island is refereable to this species, althought, quite oddly, it seems that by that time no one could distinguish the two species of rail that inhabited Mauritius.
Source: Anthony Cheke & Julian Hume, Lost Land of the Dodo
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Post by surroundx on Jan 15, 2013 9:21:39 GMT
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Post by surroundx on Aug 12, 2014 11:26:27 GMT
"Dryolimnas sp. — Mauritius. Cowles (1987) identified Dryolimnas material collected from the Mare aux Songes, which had previously been ascribed to the common moorhen Gallinula chloropus Linnaeus, 1758 (Newton & Gadow 1893). However, he referred the material to nominate D. cuvieri. I identified more Dryolimnas material from a collection made by Thirioux in caves around Le Pouce Mountain, which shows that an endemic, flightless Dryolimnas once occurred on Mauritius." Source: Hume, Julian Pender. (2013). A synopsis of the pre-human avifauna of the Mascarene Islands, pp. 195-237. In: Göhlich, U.B. & Kroh, A. (eds.). Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution. Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien. |
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Post by Melanie on Nov 11, 2015 14:26:31 GMT
Julian P. Hume is currently preparing the description of a new extinct rail from Mauritus. It might be possible that it will be on this species.
UNITED KINGDOM
In 2013, JULIAN PENDER HUME re-visited the fossil locality at Beanka, Madagascar. One cave contained impressive but bizarre cave art, so JPH made scaled drawings of the entire sequence. These are presently being studied, and a return trip is planned for September 2015 to collect charcoal samples for dating. In 2014 and 2015, JPH led a team of cavers, museum staff and palaeontologists to Tasmania, King Island and Flinders Island. The trip to King was following in the footsteps of two pioneers, W. B. Spencer and J. A.
Kershaw, who had discovered the bones of the nowextinct King Island Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae minor and other species in 1906. Their paper included a single photograph of the locality. We not only found the exact spot where the photograph was taken, but also found more emu bones and egg shell. The trip to Flinders was to ascertain if emu ever occurred on the island. Fossil bones were not found, but egg shell was discovered in an old museum collection that reputedly had been collected there. Tasmanian caves were also visited, of which some harboured emu material. This is an ongoing project and will result in a comprehensive paper. The Naracoorte Caves World Heritage site in South Australia was also visited. Steve Bourne, the excave manager gave an impressive tour, which included hard core caving as well as less frenetic visits to the tourist caves. Fossil bird and mammal bones were discovered, which gave a good excuse to visit Adelaide and take them to Trevor Worthy at Flinders University. The facilities there are really outstanding and Trevor discussed his impressive palaeo work in progress. JPH continues to work on the Mascarene avifauna, and is presently writing up a monograph on the Mascarene Rallidae with one new species. A recent visit to Mauritius resulted in the discovery of hitherto undescribed rallid material, which will appear in the above mentioned monograph. The passerine work is progressing, but besieged with the problems due to the lack of comparative material - most Mascarene passerines are unknown as skeletons in collections
- and a mismatch of unassociated material. However, new species are clearly awaiting identification; a new fossil starling Cryptopsar ischyrhynchus from Mauritius was described in 2014 and the latest is a new fossil Hypsipetes bulbul from Rodrigues.
SAPE Newsletter 29, 29 October, 2015
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Post by koeiyabe on Nov 28, 2015 21:20:42 GMT
 The rail in the center is illustrated as "Mauritius Rail, Lived in Mauritius, Extinct in 1675" in Japanese. Can you identify the rail? I think that it is Sauzier's wood Rail. "Living Things Vanished from the Earth (in Japanese)" by Toshio Inomata (1993) from above to below with Reunion Starling and Mascarene Parrot Newton's Parakeet, Red Rail (wrong illustration) or Sauzier's wood Rail, Mauritius Blue Pigeon Antanartia borbonica mauritiana, Salamis augustina vinsoni, Libythea cinyras |
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Post by koeiyabe on Nov 30, 2015 12:20:37 GMT
Do you have any clear illustrations?
Also, it may be Réunion rail (Dryolimnas augusti). I think its distribution is wrong.
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Post by Melanie on Nov 30, 2015 17:43:04 GMT
The extinction year 1675 is best matched with the Mauritius red rail. So the illustration is not correct. Dryolimnas augusti and Sauzier's wood rail are only known by bones. The latter one is not even described.
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Post by koeiyabe on Dec 1, 2015 13:08:22 GMT
Thank you for your help.
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Post by Melanie on Mar 8, 2017 14:45:11 GMT
I've got a reply by Julian Hume on the new extinct rail he found on Mauritius:
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Post by Melanie on Oct 20, 2018 23:01:36 GMT
From the latest SAPE newsletter:
HUME, J.P. (in review): Systematics, morphology, and ecology of rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with one new species. – Zootaxa.
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Post by Melanie on Apr 27, 2019 23:41:35 GMT
I've got a new mail from Julian Hume where he confirmed that the monograph on the Mascarene rails has been accepted and will be published soon. There will be also a new article by him (also soon) where he explains that rails on the Indian Ocean islands (Aldabra, Mascarenes) evolved flightlessness twice.
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Post by Melanie on Jul 3, 2019 0:35:22 GMT
The long awaited publication on the Mascarenes rails by Julian Hume has been finally published: Systematics, morphology and ecology of rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with one new species JULIAN PENDER HUME Abstract Five species in five genera of extinct endemic rails have been described from the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues: the Mauritian Red Rail or Poule Rouge Aphanapteryx bonasia; Mascarene Coot or Poule d’eau Fulica newtonii; which occurred on Mauritius and Réunion; Réunion Wood Rail Dryolimnas augusti; Réunion Gallinule or Oiseaux bleu ‘Porphyrio caerulescens’; and Rodrigues or Leguat’s Rail Erythromachus leguati. All are known from fossil remains and/or from contemporary accounts and illustrations. A sixth species of rail Dryolimnas sp. nov. is described herein from fossils from Mauritius, but was not unequivocally previously reported in the contemporary literature. This paper provides an analysis of the Rallidae of the Mascarene Islands based on existing and newly discovered fossil remains, and details historical reports and accounts. Comprehensive osteological descriptions and synonymies are also included. Their ecology and extinction chronologies are interpreted from historical evidence. The relationships of Aphanapteryx and Erythromachus are unresolved, having clearly been isolated for a considerable time; the middle Miocene is the earliest their ancestors could have arrived on the Mascarenes, but this may have happened more recently. Mascarene derivatives of Fulica, Porphyrio and Dryolimnas are of much more recent origin, and appear to have originated in Africa or Madagascar. All terrestrial rails on Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues, were probable victims of cat predation following their historic introduction to the islands, whereas over-hunting by humans was probably the primary cause of extinction of ‘Porphyrio caerulescens’ on Réunion. The only extant rail on the Mascarenes today, the Madagascar race of Eurasian Moorhen Gallinula chloropus pyrrhorrhoa, is a recent arrival, having colonised Mauritius and Réunion after the extinction of Fulica newtonii. Keywords Aves, Mascarene rails, Rallidae, Aphanapteryx, Erythromachus, Dryolimnas, Porphyrio, Gallinula, Leguatia, extinction, affinities, ecology, sexual dimorphism mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4626.1.1 |
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Post by Melanie on Jul 3, 2019 9:02:24 GMT
Etymology:
Named in honour of my friend and colleague, Anthony Cheke, in recognition of his unparalleled lifelong contribution to Mascarene ecological history.
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Post by Melanie on Jul 18, 2019 10:53:34 GMT
The relative paucity of available fossil and comparative material, particularly during the 19th century, was probably the main factor underlying not infrequent misidentification of fossil remains. Skeletal remains collected by Théodore Sauzier from the Mare aux Songes locality, Mauritius, were assigned to the Malagasy race of the Moorhen Gallinula chloropus pyrrhorrhoa A. Newton, 1861 (Newton & Gadow, 1893). However, it now appears that the Moorhen is a comparatively recent colonist, probably arriving after man altered the habitat and exterminated an endemic species occupying a similar niche (Cheke & Hume, in prep.). Subsequently, Cowles (1987) reexamined the fossil G. c. pyrrhorrhoa material and assigned it to the genus Dryolimnas (White-Throated Rail), conspecific with the nominate taxon D. cuvieri cuvieri (Pucheran, 1845). However, more recent comparisons with D. c. cuvieri, and the discovery of further fossil elements in the Thirioux collection, suggest that this material is actually referable to a distinct species of flightless rail, only doubtfully belonging to the genus Dryolimnas (Hume, unpubl.). Hume, J.P. & Prys-Jones, R.P. (2005) New discoveries from old sources, with reference to the original bird and mammal fauna of the Mascarene Islands, Indian Ocean. Zoologische Mededelingen, 79 (3), 85–95. Free download: www.researchgate.net/publication/285641699_New_discoveries_from_old_sources_with_reference_to_the_original_bird_and_mammal_fauna_of_the_Mascarene_Islands_Indian_Ocean/link/566ed35d08ae430ab5003a94/download |
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