New Zealand raven

There were three subspecies:{{Cite journal |last1=Scofield |first1=R. Paul |last2=Mitchell |first2=Kieren J. |last3=Wood |first3=Jamie R. |last4=De Pietri |first4=Vanesa L. |last5=Jarvie |first5=Scott |last6=Llamas |first6=Bastien |last7=Cooper |first7=Alan |date=January 2017 |title=The origin and phylogenetic relationships of the New Zealand ravens |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |language=en |volume=106 |pages=136–143 |bibcode=2017MolPE.106..136S |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2016.09.022 |pmid=27677399}}{{Cite journal |last1=Ioane-Warren |first1=Melanie |last2=Salvador |first2=Rodrigo Brincalepe |last3=Rogers |first3=Karyne M. |last4=Tennyson |first4=Alan J. D. |date=2023-03-07 |title=Augustus Hamilton's fossil collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa |url=https://munin.uit.no/handle/10037/29078 |journal=Tuhinga |volume=34 |pages=47–56 |doi=10.3897/tuhinga.34.97731 |issn=1173-4337 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=10037/29078}} the North Island raven (Corvus moriorum antipodum), South Island raven (Corvus moriorum pycrafti), and Chatham raven (Corvus moriorum moriorum) from the Chatham Islands.Miskelly, Colin & Forsdick, Natalie & Gill, Brian & Palma, Ricardo & Rawlence, Nicolas & Tennyson, Alan. (2022). CHECKLIST OF THE BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361824003_CHECKLIST_OF_THE_BIRDS_OF_NEW_ZEALAND

2017 genetic research determined that the three raven populations were subspecies rather than separate species, having only split 130,000 years ago.{{Cite journal|last1=Scofield|first1=R. Paul|last2=Mitchell|first2=Kieren J.|last3=Wood|first3=Jamie R.|last4=De Pietri|first4=Vanesa L.|last5=Jarvie|first5=Scott|last6=Llamas|first6=Bastien|last7=Cooper|first7=Alan|date=January 2017|title=The origin and phylogenetic relationships of the New Zealand ravens|journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|language=en|volume=106|pages=136–143|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2016.09.022|pmid=27677399|bibcode=2017MolPE.106..136S }} 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.{{Cite web | title = Corvus moriorum | work = Collections Online | publisher = Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa | url = http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ObjectDetails.aspx?oid=391607 | accessdate = 18 July 2010}}

The holotype of the South Island raven (formerly Corvus antipodum pycrofti) is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.{{Cite web |title=Corvus antipodum pycrafti; holotype; paratype |url=http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=684351 |accessdate=18 July 2010 |work=Collections Online |publisher=Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa}}

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.{{Cite journal |last=Dawson |first=Elliot Watson |date=2020-01-01 |title=An extinct New Zealand raven (Corvus antipodum) on the Auckland Islands - an osteographic enigma? |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124157208 |journal=Notornis |language=English |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=295–297}}

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 they had partially white or grey plumage (see also pied raven).

Remains of New Zealand ravens are most common in Pleistocene and Holocene coastal sites.{{Cite book |last1=Tennyson |first1=Alan |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q63353412 |title=Extinct Birds of New Zealand |last2=Martinson |first2=Paul |date=2006-01-01 |publisher=Te Papa Press |isbn=978-0-909010-21-8}} 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.

File:MA I061788 TePapa Corvus-antipodum-pycrafti full.jpg|Corvus antipodum pycrafti holotype

File:Corvus antipodum (AM LB9237).jpg|Corvus antipodum bones collected from the Aupouri Peninsula

File:MA I360025 TePapa Corvus-antipodum-pycrafti full.jpg|Underside view of Corvus antipodum pycrafti skull

File:MA I360023 TePapa Corvus-antipodum-pycrafti full.jpg|Skull of Corvus antipodum pycrofti

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

{{Reflist}}

• Gill, B. J. 2003. "Osteometry and systematics of the extinct New Zealand ravens (Aves: Corvidae: Corvus)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 1: 43–58.
• Scofield, R. P., Mitchell K.J., Wood, J.R., De Pietri, V.L., Jarvie, S., Llamas, B., Cooper, A., 2017. "The origin and phylogenetic relationships of the New Zealand ravens" in Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, Vol.106, p. 136-143. {{ISSN|1055-7903}}; {{doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2016.09.022}}
• Worthy, T.H., Holdaway R.N., 2002, The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand, Indiana University Press, Bloomington. {{ISBN|0-253-34034-9}}.

• [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=711029 New Zealand Raven. Corvus antipodum.] by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111013123736/http://extinct.petermaas.nl/ The Extinction Website]
• [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=711028 Chatham Islands Raven. Corvus moriorum.] by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006

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Category:Corvus

Category:Extinct birds of New Zealand

Category:Holocene extinctions

Category:Late Quaternary prehistoric birds

Category:Ravens