Bountyphaps obsoleta (Henderson Archaic Pigeon)

[Deleted]

Hi !

A unnamed pigeon was found on Henderson Island (year ?), as far as I know it was very large sized, flightless and somehow related to the genus Caloenas.

I have no idea if this bird is now described or not.

It is not the same as Gallicolumba sp. from the same island.

On Henderson Island lived five species of Pigeons and Doves of which only one is still extant, Ptilinopus insularis.

Bye
Alex

[Peter]

Steadman, D.W.; Olson, S.L. 1985. Bird remainsfrom an archaeological site on Henderson Island, South Pacific: man-caused extinctions on an'uninhabited' island. Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences USA 82: 6192-6195.Taylor, R.H. 1985.

[Melanie]

Associated with these fossil land snails were the bones
of birds, including three undescribed extinct species
(Wragg 1995): Henderson sandpiper (Prosobonia n. sp.),
Henderson archaic pigeon (Columbidae n. g.) and
Henderson ground dove (Gallicolumba n. sp.). Although
rare in the pre- Polynesian levels in Hen-6, the remains
of a fourth extinct bird, a ducula pigeon (Ducula n. sp.),
were recovered in large numbers in cultural (and earlier)
horizons elsewhere, particularly those forming the
coastal midden (Hen-5).

www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/index/QTQ5Y32D8YY5YKGK.pdf

[another specialist]

Henderson island had one hell of a load of different endemic bird species especially pigeons - Why Henderson Island?

[Deleted]

Hi !

If we need some map-material we must not take it from the internet - as long as it is of Polynesia.
;D We have our own !

Here are the Pitcairn Islands:



I often wonder why an island as small as Henderson Island can have so many Pigeon-species but New Zealand (North- & South Island) has only one.

Bye
Alex

[another specialist]

So we both think alike it's a bit of a mystery ain't it

[adzebill]

HENDERSON ARCHAIC PIGEON (Columbidae, new genus), new listing
Thirty-three pigeon genera were examined. In overall similarity this bird is closest to the Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), but bas smaller wings (c. 20% to 40%) with more heavily constructed, same-length legs. The reduced ligament attachment points on the head of the humerus and the reduced cross-sectional area of the humeral shaft show a greatly reduced power of flight in this new genus of archaic pigeon.
Source: EXTINCTIONS AND NEW RECORDS OF BIRDS FROM HENDERSON ISLAND, PITCAIRN GROUP, SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN*
GRAHAM M. wRAGG and MARSHALL I. WEISLER
Notornis, 41-1

www.notornis.org.nz/free_issues/Notornis_41-1994/Notornis_41_1_61.pdf

[adzebill]

The "Henderson Island archaic pigeon" named at last!
Bountyphaps obsoleta
Bountyphaps obsoleta was the largest of the four columbids formerly extant on Henderson Island, and like Ducula harrisoni and Gallicolumba leonpascoi (Worthy and Wragg 2003; Wragg and Worthy 2006), it went extinct following the colonisation of Henderson Island by people.
Only Ptilinopus survives today. The affinities of Bountyphaps obsoleta are obscure at present, and would be facilitated by the discovery of tarsometatarsi. Its relationships are currently perhaps partly confounded by homoplasy related to convergence to a terrestrial habit, but these initial comparisons suggest it is most closely related to Didunculus and Caloenas. Both taxa have relict distributions in the Pacific now with extinct taxa on widely separated islands (Steadman 2006a, b). In particular, Caloenas nicobarica has a modern distribution in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Palau and the Solomon Islands (Steadman 2006a), but the fossil taxon C. canacorum
(Balouet and Olson 1989) is found in New Caledonia and Tonga (Steadman 2006a).
The few available specimens indicate Bountyphaps obsoleta had relatively reduced wings for its body size, as indicated by its coracoid length compared with the sympatric Ducula. This suggests B. obsoleta was a comparatively weaker flier, but as the legs are not relatively larger than D. harrisoni, it probably was not flightless.

Source:
A new genus and species of pigeon (Aves: Columbidae) from Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group
Trevor H. Worthy and Graham M. Wragg
Terra Australis, 29
Article complete and free here:
epress.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta29/pdf/ch31.pdf
I think moderators could add the scientific name on the post title

[another specialist]

adzebill thank you for new information.

Will rename thread as Bountyphaps obsoleta replacing Henderson Island Archaic Pigeon.

[Melanie]

Source: epress.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta29/pdf/ch31.pdf

[surroundx]

Nov 17, 2005 22:10:11 GMT Melanie said:

Associated with these fossil land snails were the bones
of birds, including three undescribed extinct species
(Wragg 1995): Henderson sandpiper (Prosobonia n. sp.),
Henderson archaic pigeon (Columbidae n. g.) and
Henderson ground dove (Gallicolumba n. sp.). Although
rare in the pre- Polynesian levels in Hen-6, the remains
of a fourth extinct bird, a ducula pigeon (Ducula n. sp.),
were recovered in large numbers in cultural (and earlier)
horizons elsewhere, particularly those forming the
coastal midden (Hen-5).

www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/index/QTQ5Y32D8YY5YKGK.pdf

The (Wragg 1995) paper cited is the following paper:

Wragg, Graham M. (1995). The fossil birds of Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group: natural turnover and human impact, a synopsis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 56: 405-414.

[Sebbe]

New prehistoric avifaunas from the Gambier Group, French Polynesia.

This paper analyses 647 bird bones identifiable at least to family-level collected from archaeological sites in 2005, 2012 and 2014 by P. Kirch, in the Gambier Group, French Polynesia. The bones derive from Onemea Site (TAR-6) on Taravai Island, Nenega-Iti Rock Shelter (AGA-3) on Agakauitai Island and Kitchen Cave (KAM-1) on Kamaka Island. Eighteen bird species, four newly recorded in this archipelago, are represented among the bones from archaeological layers dating from human arrival in the tenth century to the late pre-European contact period in the early nineteeth century. They reveal that the original avifauna from the Gambier Group minimally included 37 species. These include six now extinct taxa, a species of Pseudobulweria petrel, two columbids (Bountyphaps obsoleta, Ducula tihonireasini n.sp. described herein) and three other land birds that were recorded historically. Minimally, a further six species have been extirpated from the Gambier Group. These archaeological avifaunas are strongly dominated by seabirds (89.4% Minimum Number Individuals) but differences in species representation and dominance suggest the composition of breeding seabird faunas differed between islands. Columbidae were the dominant land birds (58.9% MNI), although no species of this family currently exist on this archipelago.

palaeo-electronica.org/content/2018/2360-gambier-group-fossil-avifaunas

[alexanderlang]

The authors assume that the species very likely was imported to the islands by the Polynesians themselves (from the Pitcairns), which indeed is very possible. The species, however, may also have occurred on the Gambier Islands and the Pitcairn Islands as well naturally, we may probably never know that for sure.    

It is almost impossible to imagine how these often so small islands may have looked like some few hundred years ago.

[Melanie]

Dec 7, 2018 14:48:05 GMT alexanderlang said:

It is almost impossible to imagine how these often so small islands may have looked like some few hundred years ago.

Rapa Nui was a vegetation rich and forrested island 1000 years ago. I think it was similar on the other islands. Many islands were destroyed by humans but others also either by marine transgression or by climate change. Look how Pacific islands changed their look today (some of them will disappear forever in the next 100 or 200 years because of climate change) and you will have a rough idea how it was 1000 years ago.