Matuku (genus)

Matuku otagoense Temporal range: Early Miocene 19–16 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Pelecaniformes
Family:	Ardeidae
Genus:	Matuku Scofield et al., 2010
Species:	M. otagoense
Binomial name
Matuku otagoense Scofield et al., 2010

Matuku otagoense, also referred to as the Saint Bathans heron, is an extinct genus and species of heron from the Early Miocene of New Zealand. It was described from fossil material collected in 2007 from the Saint Bathans Fauna of the Bannockburn Formation in Otago, South Island. It was a contemporary of the much smaller Saint Bathans bittern, remains of which have been found in the same sediments.^[1] The genus name Matuku is the term for “heron” or "bittern" in the Māori language. The specific epithet is a latinisation of the name of the Otago region where the descriptive material was collected.^[2]

References

1. Worthy TH, Worthy JP, Tennyson AJD, Scofield RP (2013). "A bittern (Aves: Ardeidae) from the early Miocene of New Zealand". Paleontological Journal 47 (11): 1331–1343. doi:10.1134/S0031030113110154.
2. Scofield, R. Paul; Worthy, Trevor H.; & Tennyson, Alan J.D. (2010). "A heron (Aves: Ardeidae) from the Early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of southern New Zealand.". In W.E. Boles and T.H. Worthy. (eds). Proceedings of the VII International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum 62. pp. 89–104.