Huahine gull

Huahine gull
Conservation status
Extinct
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Laridae
Genus:	Chroicocephalus
Species:	C. utunui
Binomial name
*Chroicocephalus utunui* (Steadman, 2002)
Synonyms
Larus utunui

The Huahine gull (Chroicocephalus utunui), also known as the Society Islands gull, is an extinct bird, a species of gull of which subfossil bones were found at the Fa'ahia archeological site on Huahine, in the Society Islands of French Polynesia.

The site is an early Polynesian occupation site dating to between 700 CE and 1200 CE, containing, as well as anthropogenic material, the remains of many species of birds now either globally or locally extinct, that were killed for their flesh, bones or feathers. The gull was described (as Larus utunui) from 12 bones from two individual birds. Osteological similarities suggest that the nearest living relative of the Huahine gull is the silver gull (C. novaehollandiae), the nearest extant populations of which are in New Zealand, 3,800 km south-west of Huahine.^[1]

References

↑ Steadman, David W. (2002). "A new species of gull (Laridae: Larus) from an archeological site on Huahine, Society Islands". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 115: 1–17.

Gulls (family: Laridae)

Genus	Species

Larus	Pacific gull Belcher's gull Olrog's gull Black-tailed gull Heermann's gull Common Gull (or Mew Gull) Ring-billed gull California gull Great black-backed gull Kelp gull (or Cape gull) Glaucous-winged gull Western gull Yellow-footed gull Glaucous gull Iceland gull Kumlien's gull Thayer's gull European herring gull Heuglin's gull American herring gull Yellow-legged gull Caspian gull Vega gull (or East Siberian gull / Mongolian gull) Armenian gull Slaty-backed gull Lesser black-backed gull

Ichthyaetus	White-eyed gull Sooty gull Great black-headed gull (or Pallas's gull) Audouin's gull Mediterranean gull Relict gull

Leucophaeus	Dolphin gull Laughing gull Franklin's gull Lava gull Grey gull

Chroicocephalus	Silver gull Red-billed gull Huahine gull Hartlaub's gull Brown-hooded gull Grey-headed gull (or Grey-hooded gull) Andean gull Black-billed gull Brown-headed gull Black-headed gull Slender-billed gull Bonaparte's gull

Saundersilarus	Saunders's gull

Hydrocoloeus	Little gull

Rhodostethia	Ross's gull

Rissa	Black-legged kittiwake Red-legged kittiwake

Pagophila	Ivory gull

Xema	Sabine's gull

Creagrus	Swallow-tailed gull

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