New Zealand raven

The New Zealand raven (Corvus moriorum) is an extinct species of crow that was endemic to New Zealand. It went extinct in the 16th century.

New Zealand raven Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene
Two skulls, from lateral (top) and ventral (bottom)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Genus:	Corvus
Species:	†C. moriorum
Binomial name
†Corvus moriorum (Forbes, 1892)

Taxonomy

There were three subspecies:^[1][2] the North Island raven (Corvus moriorum antipodum), South Island raven (Corvus moriorum pycrafti), and Chatham raven (Corvus moriorum moriorum) from the Chatham Islands.^[3]

2017 genetic research determined that the three raven populations were subspecies rather than separate species, having only split 130,000 years ago.^[4] DNA evidence suggests that its closest relatives are in the clade containing the forest raven, little raven and Australian raven, from which it split around 2 million years ago.

A reconstruction of the raven is in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, specimen MNZ S.036749.^[5]

Distribution and habitat

The holotype of the South Island raven is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.^[6]

A late Holocene fossil bone of Corvus antipodum was found on Enderby Island in 1964 by New Zealand biologist Elliot Dawson. It is the only authentic record of a corvid in the Auckland Islands and is thought to represent an individual bird that reached the Auckland Islands as a vagrant.^[7]

Description

The Chatham raven was significantly larger than the New Zealand raven, and probably the world's fourth- or fifth-largest passerine. They had long, broad bills that were not as arched as those of some of the Hawaiian crow (C. hawaiiensis). Presumably, they were black all over like all their close relatives. There do not seem to be recorded oral traditions of this subspecies – most of the Moriori people, after whom this subspecies 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, such as the pied raven, they had partially white or grey plumage.

Ecology

Remains of New Zealand ravens are most common in Pleistocene and Holocene coastal sites.^[8] On the coast, it may have frequented the seal and penguin colonies or fed in the intertidal zone, 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.

Gallery

• 
  Corvus antipodum pycrafti holotype
• 
  Corvus antipodum bones collected from the Aupouri Peninsula
• 
  Underside view of Corvus antipodum pycrafti skull
• 
  Skull of Corvus antipodum pycrofti

See also

• List of Late Quaternary prehistoric bird species
• List of New Zealand animals extinct in the Holocene
• Late Quaternary prehistoric birds