Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
New Zealand swan
| New Zealand swan Temporal range: Pleistocene-Holocene
| |
|---|---|
| |
Extinct (1650 CE)
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Genus: | Cygnus |
| Species: | †C. sumnerensis
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Cygnus sumnerensis (Forbes, 1890)
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The New Zealand swan (Moriori: poūwa, Cygnus sumnerensis) is an extinct indigenous swan from the Chatham Islands and the South Island of New Zealand. Discovered as archaeological remains in 1889, it was originally considered a separate species from the Australian black swan (Cygnus atratus) because of its slightly larger bones, and swans not having been introduced to New Zealand until 1864. From 1998 until 2017, it was considered to be simply a New Zealand population of Cygnus atratus, until DNA recovered from fossil bones determined that it was indeed a separate species, much larger and heavier than its Australian relative.
Previous Page Next Page
