Maui Nui Finch

Telespiza wye (English common name: Maui Nui Finch ) is an extinct species of the subfamily of Hawaiian dresses birds. She felt on Maui and Molokai.

Features

Telespiza wye was the smallest member of the genus Telespiza. The beak was smaller with larger nostrils than in the other species of this genus. Osteological comparisons between extinct taxa Telespiza wye and Telespiza persecutrix and the recent Nihoagimpel ( Telespiza ultima ) lead to the assumption that Telespiza wye could have resembled the Nihoagimpel in his plumage coloration. The type material consists of a complete maxillary and from the upper jaw and lower jaw fragments, was discovered in 1976 by Storrs Olson and Joan Aidem at Ilio Point on Molokai and in the Puu Naio Cave on Maui.

Distribution and habitat

Telespiza wye was probably on the entire Maui Nui island complex, which includes the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe, distributed. The subfossil material has not hitherto discovered only on Maui and Molokai. The frequency of bone suggests that this type occurred frequently in dry lowland habitats. However, they could also have lived in dry highland forests. A ramus ( ramus of the mandible ) of similar, previously undescribed taxon Telespiza affinis wye was found in the moist highlands in Lua Lepo in 808 meters of altitude in eastern Maui.

Predators

53 percent of the found bone material at Ilio Point come from the Gewöllablagerungen the also extinct Kauai Langbeineule. According to Storrs Olson Telespiza wye could therefore have been an important prey of this owl.

Extinction

Telespiza wye is known only from subfossilem material. The causes and the date of extinction is unknown. Probably died the way during the Polynesian colonization, but before the arrival of Europeans in the 18th century.

Etymology

The specific epithet is derived from the letter upsilon from standing at twentieth place in the Greek alphabet. This name was chosen because the excavation site on Illo Point is named " Site 20".