Viti Levu Snipe

The Fiji snipe ( Coenocorypha miratropica ) is an extinct genus from the Schnepfenart Coenocorypha. It is known only from fossil material that is very probably dates from the Holocene. The epithets mirabilis ( "surprise" ) and tropicos ( " tropical" ) are derived from the surprising fact that a genre that is usually found only in high southern latitudes, occurred on a tropical island.

The holotype, a complete left humerus, was promoted on 18 November 1999 in Vatuma Cave about 12 km south of Nadi, on Viti Levu days. The bone is not mineralized and cream white. It has a length of 40.2 mm. The paratypes include the following material: a distal left and two distal right humerus, two distal right Ellen, three left Carpometacarpi, left shoulder blade, a distal right and a proximal right tarsometatarsus, a proximal left radius and two fragments of a beak with Zwischenkieferbein. The Fiji snipe was greater than the Coeonocorypha species of New Zealand and an undescribed species from Norfolk Island. A comparison with a similarly undescribed species from New Caledonia is not possible because the humerus of this kind the coracoid missing.

The exact Aussterbezeitpunkt the Fiji snipe is unknown. It is one of nine formerly in the Fiji islands occurring, but now extinct bird species that have disappeared during the early colonization by excessive hunting, habitat loss and predation by pigs, dogs and the Pacific rat.