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Information about Rodrigues Solitaire

Rodrigues Solitaire

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Columbiformes
Family:Columbidae
Subfamily:Raphinae
Genus:Pezophaps
Strickland, 1848
Species:P. solitaria
Binomial name
Pezophaps solitaria
(Gmelin, 1789)


The Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) was a flightless member of the pigeon order endemic to Rodrigues, Mauritius. It was a close relative of the Dodo.

It was first recorded by François Leguat, the leader of a group of French Huguenot refugees who colonised the island from 1691 to 1693. He described the bird in some detail, including its solitary nesting behaviour. The Huguenots praised the birds for their flavour, especially the young ones.

Due to hunting and predation by introduced cats, the birds soon became scarce, and when Cossigny attempted to get a specimen in 1755, none could be found. The Rodrigues Solitaire probably became extinct sometime in the 1730s or maybe 1760s. The exact date is somewhat difficult to determine: there exist a few reports of "solitaires" from the Mascarenes without mention of which island these came from, and the term was also used for other species with "solitary" habits, such as the enigmatic oiseau bleu and the "Réunion Solitaire"[1].

A large number of bones of the bird have been collected, but there are no mounted specimens. Solitaires are distinguished by an unusual large, gnarled knob of bone at the base of the thumb. In life this knob would have been covered by a thick layer of skin and used as a weapon (a similar, smaller thumb knob is seen in Canada geese). Observations of the solitaire indicate that breeding pairs were highly territorial; presumably they settled disputes by striking each other with the wings. To aid this purpose, the males especially had well-developed knobs on their wrists, up to the size of a musket bullet.

Systematics

The dodo and the Rodrigues Solitaire, collectively termed didines, consititute what is best interpreted as a subfamily Raphinae in the pigeon family, although often, they are considered a full-fledged family Raphidae.

Comparison of mitochondrial cytochrome b and 12S rRNA sequences (Shapiro et al., 2002) isolated from remains of the Rodrigues Solitaire and the Dodo confirms their close relationship. It has also been interpreted to show that the Nicobar Pigeon is their close living relative[2].

But at least the cytochrome b gene sequence is not well suited to resolve the phylogeny of the Australian, Pacific and Southeast Asian pigeons - the very group to which the Nicobar Pigeon belongs[3]. Biogeography suggests that the ancestors of the dodo and solitaire indeed derived from some ancient form in the Indo-Australian pigeon lineage(s), but until genes are sequenced that give a less ambiguous picture, the evolutionary connection between the Raphinae and the Nicobar Pigeon must remain a hypothesis not too well supported by the available data.

It has been suggested (see Janoo 2005) that the didine group should be dissolved and the dodo and solitaire placed in an existing subfamily of the Columbidae, but this is problematical[4]. Given the morphological distinctness of the Raphinae, the fact that they constituted a distinct evolutionary lineage, and their closer relationship to some pigeons than to others, it seems best to retain them as a distinct subfamily at least, until better data on their relationships - possibly including fossils of their ancestors - is available. This species' ancestors probably diverged from those of the dodo around the Paleogene-Neogene boundary; see the Raphinae article as to why the often-cited date of "25 mya" is spurious.

See also

References

  • BirdLife International (2004). Pezophaps solitaria. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is listed as extinct
  • Janoo, Anwar (2005): Discovery of isolated dodo bones [Raphus cucullatus (L.), Aves, Columbiformes] from Mauritius cave shelters highlights human predation, with a comment on the status of the family Raphidae Wetmore, 1930. Annales de Paléontologie 91: 167–180. [English with French abstract] doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2004.12.002 (HTML abstract)
  • Johnson, Kevin P. & Clayton, Dale H. (2000): Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genes Contain Similar Phylogenetic. Signal for Pigeons and Doves (Aves: Columbiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 14(1): 141–151. PDF fulltext
  • Shapiro, Beth; Sibthorpe, Dean; Rambaut, Andrew; Austin, Jeremy; Wragg, Graham M.; Bininda-Emonds, Olaf R. P.; Lee, Patricia L. M. & Cooper, Alan (2002): Flight of the Dodo. Science 295: 1683. doi:10.1126/science.295.5560.1683 (HTML abstract) Supplementary information

Footnotes

1. ^ Similarly, the dodo's Dutch name dodaers (plump-arse) was also used for some time for the Red Rail, until that species, too, became extinct.
2. ^ DNA yields dodo family secrets. BBC News (February 28th, 2002). Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
3. ^ Compare figures 3 and 5 in Johnson & Clayton (2000) to Shapiro et al., 2002, especially the placement of Treron and Goura.
4. ^ By the same reasoning, all mammals must be included in the class Sarcopterygii so that the latter is monophyletic. But evolutionary lineages are not created de novo; they are always derivates of a pre-existing group, without this fact alone allowing any prima facie assumptions about their evolutionary distinctness.
conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
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Centuries: 17th century - 18th century - 19th century

1700s 1710s 1720s - 1730s - 1740s 1750s 1760s
1730 1731 1732 1733 1734
1735 1736 1737 1738 1739

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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Columbiformes
Latham, 1790

Families
  • Columbidae
  • Raphidae


The bird order Columbiformes includes the very widespread and successful doves and pigeons, classified in the family Columbidae, and the extinct Dodo and the Rodrigues
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Columbidae

Subfamilies

see article text

Pigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine birds.
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Raphinae
Verheyen, 1957

Genera

Pezophaps (extinct)
Raphus (extinct)

Synonyms

Raphidae Poche, 1904

The Raphinae are a subfamily of extinct flightless birds colloquially called didines
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Hugh Edwin Strickland (March 2, 1811 - September 14, 1853), was an English geologist, ornithologist and systematist.

Strickland was born at Reighton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and was grandson of Sir George Strickland, Bart.
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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
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1845 1846 1847 - 1848 - 1849 1850 1851

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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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J. F. Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1748 - 1804)
Born July 8 1748(1748--)
Germany
Died November 1 1804 (aged 56)
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
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Columbidae

Subfamilies

see article text

Pigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine birds.
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order (Latin: ordo, plural ordines) is a rank between class and family (termed a taxon at that rank). The superorder is a rank between class and order. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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endemic, it is unique to its own place or region; it is found only there, and not found naturally anywhere else. The place must be a discrete geographical unit, often an island or island group, but sometimes a country, habitat type, or other defined area or zone.
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Anthem
Motherland (Republic of Mauritius Anthem)


Capital Port Mathurin
Largest city Port Mathurin
Official languages English (official Language), French, Rodriguan Creole
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Motto
"Stella Clavisque Maris Indici"   (Latin)
"Star and Key of the Indian Ocean"
Anthem
Motherland
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Raphus
Brisson, 1760

Species: R. cucullatus

Binomial name
Raphus cucullatus
(Linnaeus, 1758)


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François Leguat (1637 to 1639 - September 1?, 1735) was a French explorer and naturalist.

Leguat was a huguenot who fled to Holland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. In 1690 he boarded a ship with a group of other Huguenots bound for the Indian Ocean.
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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From the 16th to the 18th century the name Huguenot was applied to a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists.
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
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885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
..... Click the link for more information.
Centuries: 17th century - 18th century - 19th century

1700s 1710s 1720s - 1730s - 1740s 1750s 1760s
1730 1731 1732 1733 1734
1735 1736 1737 1738 1739

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Events and trends


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Centuries: 17th century - 18th century - 19th century

1730s 1740s 1750s - 1760s - 1770s 1780s 1790s
1760 1761 1762 1763 1764
1765 1766 1767 1768 1769

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Events and Trends

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