A new species of Pliocene shearwater (Aves: Procellariidae) from New Zealand

Tuhinga 29: 1-19

ABSTRACT: We describe two partial but well-preserved Late Pliocene fossil skeletons from Taranaki, New Zealand, as a new species of seabird. In structure, these bones match those of a shearwater (Procellariiformes: Procellariidae) but the new taxon is distinguished from all known extant and extinct taxa by a unique combination of features. It was a gliding species as large as the largest species of extant shearwater. It represents the first pre-Pleistocene record of a new shearwater taxon from the western Pacific and helps reveal the history of shearwater evolution. Today, New Zealand has the greatest diversity of breeding shearwater species in the world, and the new fossil adds weight to other evidence that shearwaters have a long history in this region.

KEYWORDS: Procellariiformes, Procellariidae, shearwater, fossil, Pliocene, biogeography,
New Zealand.