Conquered Lorikeet

Vini Vidivici

( Hypothetical representation, based on bone and compare with other Maidloriarten. The plumage coloration is fictitious. )

Vini Vidivici is an extinct Lori from the kind of Maidloris ( Vini ). He came before the Marquesas and on Huahine. The scientific name derives from the Veni vidi vici quote ( I came, I saw, I conquered) from which Julius Caesar v. after defeating Pharnakes II, King of Pontus in the Battle of Zela, in the year 47 AD formulated to his friend Gaius Matius. In relation to this species and its rapid extinction after the arrival of the first settlers, this should imply that people who saw the parrots for the first time, this long hunted until only bones remained.

Features

The holotype is a complete tarsometatarsus, the archaeologist Peter Bellwood in December 1967 promoted in the deposit Hanatekua on Hiva Oa in the Marquesas to days. Additional material includes a tibiotarsus, nine raven bones, three humerus, a Carpometacarpus, seven Tarsometatarsi and two lower jaw of the deposit Hane on Ua Huka, and a coracoid and two Tarsometatarsi of the deposit Hanamiai on Tahuata. In addition, material from the reference Faahia on the island Huahine is known. After the type Vini sinotoi also featured arrived in the Marquesas Vini Vidivici was the second largest species of Maidloris. Initially, the size of the tarsometatarsus suggested the assumption that the species belongs to the genus of the Parakeets run ( Cyanoramphus ). For this reason, thorough osteological comparisons between the genera Vini and Cyanoramphus and geographic comparisons with the genus of the Parakeets mask ( Prosopeia ) were carried out by Fiji and Tonga. These comparisons showed that the subfossil bone material is unique to the genus Vini.

Extinction

The stratigraphic assignment of the bones shows that this species has survived until shortly after the arrival of the first settlers in the Marquesas. The extinction of Vini Vidivici was probably 1000-1200 AD.