Rallus minutus Alcover, Pieper, Pereira & Rando, 2015, n. sp. ...

• Main Authors: Alcover, Josep Antoni, Pieper, Harald, Pereira, Fernando, Rando, Juan Carlos
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2015
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Aves; Gruiformes; Rallidae; Rallus; Rallus minutus; New Zealand; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6119650; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.6119650

Rallus minutus R. minutus n. sp. is one of the most distinctive species found. It is a dwarf rail, the smallest among the Macaronesian species, only slightly larger than Atlantisia rogersi, with robust leg bones (especially tarsometatarsus) and reduced wings. Its bill is relatively curved and the bill to total skull length ratio is slightly larger than in R. aquaticus. A long and curved bill in insular rails might be related to foraging by probing in soft soil, deep litter and mosses, as suggested elsewhere for Capellirallus karamu from New Zealand (Worthy and Holdaway 2002). The bones of R. minutus n. sp. are generally similar to those of R. aquaticus, but differ considerably in size and proportions. All the bones are clearly shorter than their respective R. aquaticus counterparts. R. minutus n. sp. combines reduced wing bones (mainly carpometacarpus and ulna) with relatively short and massive leg bones (mainly tarsometatarsus). The humerus, ulna and carpometacarpus are 35%, 47% and 49% shorter than in R. ... : Published as part of Alcover, Josep Antoni, Pieper, Harald, Pereira, Fernando & Rando, Juan Carlos, 2015, Five new extinct species of rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) from the Macaronesian Islands (North Atlantic Ocean), pp. 151-190 in Zootaxa 4057 (2) on pages 182-185, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4057.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/233597 ...