| New Zealand raven Temporal range:Late Pleistocene-Holocene | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Two skulls, from lateral (top) and ventral (bottom) | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Corvidae |
| Genus: | Corvus |
| Species: | †C. moriorum |
| Binomial name | |
| †Corvus moriorum (Forbes, 1892) | |
TheNew Zealand raven (Corvus moriorum) is anextinct species ofcrow that wasendemic toNew Zealand. It went extinct in the 16th century.
There were threesubspecies:[1][2] the North Island raven (Corvus moriorum antipodum), South Island raven (Corvus moriorum pycrafti), and Chatham raven (Corvus moriorum moriorum) from theChatham Islands.[3]
2017 genetic research determined that the three raven populations were subspecies rather than separate species, having only split 130,000 years ago.[4] DNA evidence suggests that its closest relatives are in the clade containing the forest raven,little raven andAustralian raven, from which it split around 2 million years ago.
A reconstruction of the raven is in theMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, specimen MNZ S.036749.[5]
Theholotype of the South Island raven is in the collection of theMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.[6]
A lateHolocene fossil bone ofCorvus antipodum was found onEnderby Island in 1964 by New Zealand biologist Elliot Dawson. It is the only authentic record of a corvid in theAuckland Islands and is thought to represent an individual bird that reached the Auckland Islands as avagrant.[7]
The Chatham raven was significantly larger than the New Zealand raven, and probably the world's fourth- or fifth-largestpasserine. They had long, broad bills that were not as arched as those of some of theHawaiian crow (C. hawaiiensis). Presumably, they were black all over like all their close relatives. There do not seem to be recorded oral traditions of this subspecies – most of theMoriori people, after whom this subspecies was named, were eventually killed or enslaved byMāori explorers, and little of theirnatural history knowledge has been preserved. Thus, it cannot be completely ruled out that like somecongeners, such as thepied raven, they had partially white or grey plumage.
Remains of New Zealand ravens are most common inPleistocene andHolocene coastal sites.[8] On the coast, it may have frequented the seal andpenguin colonies or fed in theintertidal zone, as does theTasmanian forest raven (C. tasmanicus). It may also have depended on fruit, like theNew Caledonian crow (C. moneduloides), but it is difficult to understand why a fruit eater would have been most common in coastal forest and shrubland when fruit was distributed throughout the forest.
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