Anas wyvilliana
The Hawaiian duck or koloa is a species of bird in the family Anatidae that is endemic to the large islands of Hawaiʻi. Taxonomically, the koloa is closely allied with the mallard. It differs in that it is monomorphic and non-migratory. As with many duck species in the genus Anas, Hawaiian duck and mallards can interbreed and produce viable offspring, and the koloa has previously been considered an island subspecies of the mallard. However, all major authorities now consider this form to be a distinct species within the mallard complex. Recent analyses indicate that this is a distinct species that arose through ancient hybridization between mallard and the Laysan duck. The native Hawaiian name for this duck is koloa maoli, or simply koloa. This species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and its population trend is increasing.

Photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- Hawaiian duckPBDB
- Sits inside
- AnasPBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Anatinae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Anatinae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- freshwaterPBDB, for Anatinae
- Mass
- 585 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Anas wyvilliana on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
1 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Anas wyvilliana and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Anas wyvilliana and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
11 taxa- Akialoa obscura1 site
- Buteo1 site
- Chaetoptila angustipluma1 site
- Chasiempis sandwichensis1 site
- Chloridops1 site
- Chlorodrepanis virens1 site
- Corvus1 site
- Fulica americana1 site
- Paroreomyza maculata1 site
- Rhodacanthis1 site
- Thambetochen1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Anas wyvilliana, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Anas wyvilliana
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Anas wyvilliana was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itAnas through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sclater 1878