Giant, Fruit-Gulping Pigeon Eaten into Extinction on Pacific Islands
A large fruit-eating bird from Tonga joins the dodo in the lineup of giant island pigeons hunted to extinction.
Fossils show that Tongoenas burleyi, a newly described genus and species, inhabited the Pacific islands for at least 60,000 years, but vanished within a century or two of human arrival around 2,850 years ago.
Unlike the dodo and the extinct Viti Levu giant pigeon of Fiji, however, T. burleyi could fly. This canopy-dwelling species co-evolved with fruit-bearing trees in the mango, guava and chinaberry families, acting as an essential forest cultivator by spreading seeds to new locations. The size of a large duck, Tongoenas burleyi was likely capable of swallowing fruit as big as a tennis ball, said study lead author David Steadman, curator of ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Some of these trees have big, fleshy fruit, clearly adapted for a big pigeon to gulp whole and pass the seeds, Steadman said. Of the fruit-eating pigeons, this bird is the largest and could have gulped bigger canopy fruit than any others. It takes co-evolution to the extreme.
The absence of T. burleyi from the Tongan islands could threaten the long-term survival of local trees that depended on the pigeon as a seed transporter, said study co-author Oona Takano, a doctoral student at the University of New Mexico.
More:
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/07/giant-fruit-gulping-pigeon-eaten-into-extinction-on-pacific-islands/134320
click for image 👇
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/8cHSGDk2DZTsMIv12C2P9ZXXn3-D5N_nHuYdelMJaXut0PcYyaeQTT5P4P3XhAYO_zVkugQOEzGIV3tAoonBUU3YBqlh3XCrY7YFd0wQUOBSKvA4_EfB_LQr5j8o25Y
Giant, Fruit-Gulping Pigeon