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Adzebill

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Adzebills
Temporal range: Miocene–Holocene 19–0.005 Ma
Skeleton of A. otidiformis; Canterbury Museum

Extinct (NZ TCS)[1](A. defossor)

Extinct (NZ TCS)[2](A. otidiformis)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: †Aptornithidae
Mantell, 1848
Genus: †Aptornis
Owen, 1844
Species
  • †Aptornis otidiformis
    (Owen, 1844)
  • †Aptornis defossor
    Owen, 1871
  • ?†Aptornis proasciarostratus
    Worthy, 2011
Synonyms

The adzebills are two species of gruiform birds belonging to the genus Aptornis, the sole member of the extinct family Aptornithidae, which were endemic to New Zealand. The species were divided between the North and South islands of the country, with Aptornis otidiformis being the North Island adzebill, and Aptornis defossor being the South Island adzebill. Additional material from the Saint Bathans fauna may represent a third species.

Taxonomy

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Adzebills were first scientifically described by biologist Richard Owen in 1844, who mistook them for a small species of moa;[3] the type species was initially named Dinornis otidiformis with the specific epithet referring to its comparable size with the great bustard (Otis tarda; otis + formis).[4] Later on, the specimens' distinction were recognized, and so the genus Aptornis was erected to accommodate them;[5] Aptornis is noted to be a syncope of Apterygiornis, an apparent allusion to the genus Apteryx.[6] The alternate spelling Apterornis was coined a week earlier, though it was considered a likely typographical error and was not coined by nor ever used by Owen;[7][8] an 1997 ICZN ruling rendered it invalid and conserved Aptornis, rendering it the valid name for this taxon.[9]

The common name refers to the adze, which is a woodworking tool with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle.[who?]

Interrelationships

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The placement of adzebills within Aves has long been contentious, with historical proposals to ally them with the Galloanserae,[10] or the kagu of New Caledonia (Rhynochetidae),[11] Its morphological resemblance to the kagu was considered to possibly be a result of convergent evolution, although New Zealand's proximity to New Caledonia (both being part of the same region of continental crust known as Zealandia, which had prehistorically been above sea level) has led some researchers to suggest the two shared a common ancestor which lived in prehistoric Gondwana; another Gondwanan bird, the sunbittern of South America, is the closest living relative of the kagu.[12][13]

A 2011 genetic study recovered A. defossor as a gruiform, a lineage of birds which includes the cranes, coots, and moorhens. At the time, there were no available DNA sequences for A. otidiformis, but it was assumed the two species were more closely related to each other than to other birds.[clarification needed][14]

In 2019 two studies came forth with more in-depth phylogenetic methods. The first from Boast et al. (2019) using data from near-complete mitochondrial genome sequences found adzebills to be closely related to the family Sarothruridae, gruiform birds known as flufftails.[15] Another study by Musser and Cracraft (2019) was published shortly afterwards, using both morphological and molecular data, found support for adzebills to be closely related to trumpeters of the family Psophiidae instead; these authors took account of Boast et al. (2019) dataset and found that the Aptornithidae-Sarothruridae clade needed 18 more steps compared to Aptornithidae-Psophiidae; the latter classification is thus considered more likely (maximum parsimony).[16]

A 2025 paper recovered Nesotrochis (within the monotypic family Nesotrochidae) to be the sister taxon of the adzebill family. Below is the result of their phylogenetic analysis, using the BEAST program to analyze 9,615 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA:[17]

Gruiformes

Description

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Aptornis defossor; Auckland Museum

The adzebills were about 80 centimetres (31 in) in length with a weight of 18 kilograms (40 lb), making them about the size of small moa (with which they were initially confused on their discovery) with enormous downward-curving and pointed bill, and strong legs.[18] They were flightless, possessing extremely reduced wings with a uniquely reduced carpometacarpus; these wings were smaller proportionally than those of the dodo.[19]

The two known species varied mostly in size with the North Island adzebill being the smaller species.[citation needed] Unlike moas, which in some species preserved soft tissue, the life appearance of Aptornis, such as coloration or feather types, is not directly known.

Fossils of a "very similar" species is known from the Miocene-epoch Saint Bathans fauna, being given the name ?Aptornis proasciarostratus; due to the fragmentary condition of the specimens, the describers deemed it possible that this animal belongs to another genus within Aptornithidae, thus the provisional nature of its placement in Aptornis.[20]

Habitat and behaviour

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Their fossils have been found in the drier areas of New Zealand, and only in the lowlands. Richard Owen, who described the two species, speculated that it was an omnivore, and analysis of its bones by stable isotope analysis supports this. Levels of enrichment in 13C and 15N for two specimens of Aptornis otidiformis were compared with values for a moa, Finsch's duck and insectivores like the owlet-nightjars suggested that the adzebill ate species higher in the food chain than insectivores.[21] They are thought to have fed on large invertebrates, lizards, tuatara and even small birds.

Extinction

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The adzebills were never as widespread as the moa but were subjected to the same hunting pressure as these and other large birds by the settling Māori (and predation of eggs/hatchlings by accompanying Polynesian rats and dogs). They became extinct before the arrival of European explorers. The Māori name for A. defossor was "ngutu hahau".[1]

Aptornis defossor skull
Restoration of A. otidiformis

References

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  1. ^ a b "Aptornis defossor. NZTCS". nztcs.org.nz. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Aptornis otidiformis . NZTCS". nztcs.org.nz. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  3. ^ Dickinson, Mike (2019). "The Mystery of the Adzebill". New Zealand Geographic. No. 157. Auckland: Kowhai Media. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  4. ^ Owen, Richard (1849). "On Dinornis (Part X) an extinct genus of tridactyle Struthious Birds, with descriptions of portions of Skeleton of five Species which formerly existed in New Zealand". Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. 3. Published for the Zoological Society of London by Academic Press: 247. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  5. ^ Mantell, Gideon Algernon (February 1848). "On the Fossil Remains of Birds collected in various parts of New Zealand by Mr. Walter Mantell, of Wellington" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 4: 225–238. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1848.004.01-02.3 (inactive 4 July 2025). Retrieved 4 July 2025.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  6. ^ Owen, Richard (1879). On the Genus Dinornis; in Memoirs on the extinct wingless birds of New Zealand : with an appendix on those of England, Australia, Newfoundland, Mauritius, and Rodriguez — Volume 1. London: J. Van Voorst. p. 347. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
  7. ^ Weber, Erich; Krell, Frank-Thorsten (1995). "Case 2879. Aptornis Owen, [1848] (Aves):proposed conservation as the correct original spelling". The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 52: 170–174. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.6759. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
  8. ^ Gill, Brian James; Bock, Walter Joseph (1995). "On the proposed conservation of Aptornis Owen,[1848] (Aves)". The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 52: 346–347. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
  9. ^ ICZN 1997: Opinion 1874. Aptornis Owen, 1848 (Aves): conserved as the correct original spelling. Bulletin of zoological nomenclature; ISSN 0007-5167, 54(2): 142–143. BHL BioStor
  10. ^ Weber Erich, Hesse Angelika (1995). "The systematic position of Aptornis, a flightless bird from New Zealand". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 181: 292–301.
  11. ^ Cracraft, J.L. (1982) Phylogenetic relationships and transantarctic biogeography of some gruiform birds. Geobios 6: 393–402.
  12. ^ Prum, R.O.; et al. (2015). "A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing". Nature. 526 (7574): 569–573. Bibcode:2015Natur.526..569P. doi:10.1038/nature15697. PMID 26444237. S2CID 205246158.
  13. ^ H Kuhl, C Frankl-Vilches, A Bakker, G Mayr, G Nikolaus, S T Boerno, S Klages, B Timmermann, M Gahr (2020) An unbiased molecular approach using 3’UTRs resolves the avian family-level tree of life. Molecular Biology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa191
  14. ^ Lanfear, R.; Bromham, L. (2011). "Estimating phylogenies for species assemblages: A complete phylogeny for the past and present native birds of New Zealand". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 61 (3): 958–963. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2011.07.018. PMID 21835254.
  15. ^ Alexander P. Boast; Brendan Chapman; Michael B. Herrera; Trevor H. Worthy; R. Paul Scofield; Alan J. D. Tennyson; Peter Houde; Michael Bunce; Alan Cooper; Kieren J. Mitchell (2019). "Mitochondrial genomes from New Zealand's extinct adzebills (Aves: Aptornithidae: Aptornis) support a sister-taxon relationship with the Afro-Madagascan Sarothruridae". Diversity. 11 (2) 24. doi:10.3390/d11020024. hdl:2440/119533.
  16. ^ Grace M. Musser; Joel Cracraft (2019). "A new morphological dataset reveals a novel relationship for the adzebills of New Zealand (Aptornis) and provides a foundation for total evidence neoavian phylogenetics" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (3927): 1–70. doi:10.1206/3927.1. hdl:2246/6937. S2CID 155704891.
  17. ^ Martin Stervander; Guangji Chen (陈光霁); Shaohong Feng (冯少鸿); Gerald Mayr (3 July 2025). "Nesotrochidae, fam. nov. ‒ a new name for the New World cave rails Nesotrochis spp., sister taxon of the New Zealand adzebills (Aptornithidae)" (PDF). Avian Systematics. 2 (8): 85–98. ISSN 2051-4441. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
  18. ^ "South Island adzebill | New Zealand Birds Online".
  19. ^ Livezey Bradley C (1994). "The carpometacarpus of Apterornis" (PDF). Notornis. 41 (1): 51–60. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-26.
  20. ^ Worthy, Trevor H.; Tennyson, Alan J. D.; Scofield, R. Paul (2011). "Fossils reveal an early Miocene presence of the aberrant gruiform Aves: Aptornithidae in New Zealand". Journal of Ornithology. 152 (3): 669–680. doi:10.1007/s10336-011-0649-6. S2CID 37555861.
  21. ^ Worthy, T. H., Richard N. Holdaway (2002):p. 212

Further reading

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