- Marquesas swamphen
- Swamphen
- Marquesan Dog
- List of extinct bird species since 1500
- IUCN Red List of extinct species
- List of birds by common name
- List of Oceanian species extinct in the Holocene
- List of Late Quaternary prehistoric bird species
- Timeline of extinctions in the Holocene
- List of birds of French Polynesia
marquesas swamphen
Marquesas swamphen GudangMovies21 Rebahinxxi LK21
The Marquesas swamphen (Porphyrio paepae) is an extinct species of swamphen from the Marquesas Islands Hiva Oa and Tahuata. It was originally described from 600-year-old subfossil remains from Tahuata and Hiva Oa. It may have survived to around 1900; in the lower right corner of Paul Gauguin's 1902 painting Le Sorcier d'Hiva Oa ou le Marquisien à la cape rouge there is a bird which resembles native descriptions of Porphyrio paepae. Thor Heyerdahl claimed to have seen a similar flightless bird on Hiva Oa in 1937.
References
Sources
Steadman, David W. (2006). Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 101, 105–6, 127, 243–4, 312–5, 523. ISBN 0-226-77142-3.