Primitive koa finch
species of bird
The primitive koa finch (Rhodacanthis litotes) is an extinct species of Hawaiian honeycreeper in the subfamily Carduelinae of the family Fringillidae. It is known from fossils on the islands of Maui and Oʻahu in Hawaii.
Description
An adult primitive koa finch was slender and had a total length of about 8 inches (200 mm). There was probably a small distinct difference between the sexes. Based on fossils, it is known that the adult primitive koa finch had a slightly curved, thick bill.
The paper that named the species in 2005 also mentions, "the fossil record of Rhodacanthis may contain at least one additional cryptic species. The difference in aperture of the nasal cavity in the Oahu vs. Maui fossils of R. litotes suggests that those two populations might be recognized as distinct species if more fossils or genetic data were available for them."
Distribution
Primitive koa finch fossils have been found on Maui and Oʻahu. Based on its disjunct distribution, the species might have occurred on all of the main islands (except the island of Hawaii and perhaps Kauai), although more fossils are needed for confirmation.
It is believed that it inhabited lowland dry forests and savannas, where dominant plant species included ka palupalu o kanaloa (Kanaloa kahoolawensis), ʻaʻaliʻi (Dodonaea viscosa), loulu (Pritchardia spp.), and koaiʻa (Acacia koaia).
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This entry incorporates text from “Primitive koa finch” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.