Tag Archives: Zapornia menehune

Zapornia menehune (Olson & James)

Tiny Molokai Crake (Zapornia menehune)

The Tiny Molokai Crake was described in 1991 based on subfossil remains that had been recovered from dune deposits at Ilio Point and Mo’omomi on the island of Moloka’i, Hawaiian Islands.

The species reached a size of only about 11 cm, that means it was the smallest rail species in the world known so far, it was, like all its Hawaiian congeners, completely flightless.

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References:

[1] Storrs L. Olson & Helen F. James: Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part I. Non-Passeriformes. In: Ornithological Monographs 45. 1991

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edited: 18.05.2019