Hakawai melvillei

Not to be confused with Hakawai (mythology).

Hakawai is an extinct genus of prehistoric birds that lived during the early Miocene to middle Miocene in New Zealand. According to a 2015 paper, Hakawai melvillei was a representative of a large group of birds that comprises the seedsnipes of family Thinocoridae) and the plains-wanderer (family Pedionomidae). This discovery sheds light on evolutionary processes at work when South America, Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand were all parts of Gondwanaland.^[1]

Hakawai melvillei Temporal range: Miocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Genus:	†Hakawai De Pietri et al. 2015
Species:	†H. melvillei
Binomial name
†Hakawai melvillei De Pietri et al. 2015