Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Subsectio: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauria
Ordo: Saurischia
Cladus: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Infraclassis: Aves
Cladus: Euavialae
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Euornithes
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Ornithurae
Cladus: Carinatae
Parvclassis: Neornithes
Cohors: Neognathae
Ordo: Charadriiformes
Subordo: Charadrii
Familia: Scolopacidae
Genus: Prosobonia
Species: P. parvirostris – †P. cancellata – †P. ellisi – †P. leucoptera
Name
Prosobonia Bonaparte, 1850
Synonyms
Aechmorhynchus Coues, 1874
References
Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaire des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences [Paris] 31: 562.
De Pietri, V.L., Worthy, T.H., Scofield, R.P., Cole, T.L., Wood, J.R., Cibois, A., Jansen, J.J.F.J., Zhang, G., Mitchell, K.J., Feng, S., Chen, W., Tennyson, A.J.D., & Wragg, G.M. 2020. A new extinct species of Polynesian sandpiper (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae: Prosobonia) from Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group, and the phylogenetic relationships of Prosobonia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa115 Reference page.
The two to five species of Polynesian sandpipers, the only members of the genus Prosobonia, are small wading birds confined to remote Pacific islands of French Polynesia. Only one species now exists, and it is rare and little known. This bird is sometimes separated in the genus Aechmorhynchus, restricting the genus to the extinct southern forms.
List of species
Tuamotu sandpiper, P. parvirostris
† Tahiti sandpiper, P. leucoptera
† Moorea sandpiper, P. ellisi
† Kiritimati sandpiper, P. cancellata
† Henderson sandpiper P. sauli
Indeterminate species are also known from the Marquesas and the Cook Islands.[1]
Description
The Tuamotu sandpiper, P. parvirostris, is a unique short-billed all-brown wader previously found over a large area of the Pacific, but now confined to a few islands in the Tuamotu archipelago and still declining. Its decline appears to be due to human habitation encroachment and introduced mammals. It feeds on insects, but takes some vegetable material from its coastal haunts. It nests on the ground, and has a soft piping call.
The extinct Tahiti sandpiper, P. leucoptera of Tahiti was similar in size and shape to P. cancellata. It had brown upperparts, reddish underparts, a white wingbar, and some white on the face and throat. It became extinct in the 19th century, and little is known of it.
There was a similar bird on Moorea which differed in some minor details from P. leucoptera, notably the larger extent of white in the wing, and has been described as Moorea sandpiper (P. ellisi). However, although two species are generally listed, the question whether they actually did constitute separate species is probably unresolvable as only a single specimen of it exists today, apart from some contemporary paintings.
From Mangaia in the Cook Islands, Ua Huka in the Marquesas, and the remote South Pacific Henderson Island (Wragg 1995), subfossil remains of Prosobonia have been recovered but not yet named. The first of these was almost certainly more closely related to the Tahiti and Moorea populations than to the Tuamotu sandpiper, but the exact nature of their relationship is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. It disappeared in the early-mid 1st millennium AD, probably not long after 300 AD.
The Ua Huka and Henderson forms can be assumed to have been closer to the living species. The latter, a distinct species with long legs and short wings (Wragg & Weisler 1994), became extinct only about 1000 years after the Mangaia form, some time after 1200.
In 2020 a new extinct species, Prosobonia sauli was described from specimens found on Henderson Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands. A genetic analysis found that the genus was sister to the clade containing Arenaria and Calidris.[1]
References
Bonaparte, Charles Lucien Jules Laurent (1850): Note sur plusieurs familles naturelles d'Oiseaux, et descriptions d'espèces nouvelles. Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaire des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 31: 561–564. [Article in French] Fulltext at Gallica
Wragg, Graham M. (1995): The fossil birds of Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group: natural turnover and human impact, a synopsis. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 56(1-2): 405–414. HTML abstract
Wragg, Graham M. and Weisler, Marshall I. (1994): Extinctions and new records of birds from Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group, South Pacific Ocean. Notornis 41(1): 60–70. [1]
De Pietri, Vanesa L; Worthy, Trevor H; Scofield, R Paul; Cole, Theresa L; Wood, Jamie R; Mitchell, Kieren J; Cibois, Alice; Jansen, Justin J F J; Cooper, Alan J; Feng, Shaohong; Chen, Wanjun (2020-11-07). "A new extinct species of Polynesian sandpiper (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae: Prosobonia) from Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group, and the phylogenetic relationships of Prosobonia". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society: zlaa115. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa115. ISSN 0024-4082.
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