Anthornis melanura
The New Zealand bellbird, also known by its Māori language names korimako, makomako and kōmako, is a medium-sized species of honeyeater endemic to New Zealand. It has been the only living member of the genus Anthornis since the Chatham Islands bellbird went extinct in the early 20th century. The bellbird's closest living relative is the only other New Zealand honeyeater, the tūī. The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of birdsong, which was much noted by early European settlers. Exceptional singing abilities were already observed by Captain James Cook, who described its song as "like small bells most exquisitely tuned".
Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
- New Zealand bellbirdPBDB
- Sits inside
- AnthornisPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Time the record covers
At most 129 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 129 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
11 occurrences of Anthornis melanura on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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
11 occurrences- Pleistocene17%
- Holocene83%
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.
Found in
1 formation
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Anthornis melanura has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Anthornis melanura and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Anthornis melanura and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
166 taxa- Cyanoramphus10 sites
- Coenocorypha aucklandica8 sites
- Coturnix novaezelandiae8 sites
- Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae8 sites
- Petroica australis8 sites
- Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae8 sites
- Hoplodactylus maculatus7 sites
- Mystacina robusta7 sites
- Turnagra capensis7 sites
- Callaeas cinereus6 sites
- Mohoua ochrocephala6 sites
- Rattus exulans6 sites
- Aegotheles novaezealandiae5 sites
- Gallirallus australis5 sites
- Rhipidura fuliginosa5 sites
- Tadorna variegata5 sites
- Anthus novaeseelandiae4 sites
- Chenonetta finschi4 sites
- Falco novaeseelandiae4 sites
- Gallinula hodgenorum4 sites
- Hoplodactylus duvaucelii4 sites
- Megalurus punctatus4 sites
- Ninox novaeseelandiae4 sites
- Oligosoma lineoocellatum4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Anthornis melanura, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
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
5 references- Quaternary fossil fauna of South Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand7
- Late-Pleistocene avifaunas from Cape Wanbrow, Otago, South Island, New Zealand1
- The history of the Chatham Islands' bird fauna of the last 7000 years - a chronicle of change and extinction1
- A remarkable fossil and archaeological avifauna from Marfells Beach, Lake Grassmere, South Island, New Zealand1
- Taphonomy of two holocene microvertebrate deposits, Takaka Hill, Nelson, New Zealand, and identification of the avian predator responsible1
Each of the 11 occurrences 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. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Anthornis melanura
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Charles J. Sharp
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itAnthornis through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Sparrman 1786)