The Huahine Starling is an extinct

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

 bird from the genus Aplonis

Aplonis

Aplonis is a genus of starlings. These are essentially island species of Indonesia, Oceania and Australasia, although some species’ ranges extend to the Malay Peninsula, southern Vietnam and northeastern Queensland. The typical adult Aplonis starling is fairly uniformly plumaged in black, brown or...

within the starling

Starling

Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The name "Sturnidae" comes from the Latin word for starling, sturnus. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, are called mynas, and many African species are known as glossy starlings because of their iridescent...

 family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Sturnidae. It was endemic to the island of Huahine

Huahine

Huahine is an island located among the Society Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Leeward Islands group . The island has a population of about 6,000.-Geography:...

, in the Society Islands

Society Islands

The Society Islands are a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. They are politically part of French Polynesia. The archipelago is generally believed to have been named by Captain James Cook in honor of the Royal Society, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands;...

 of French Polynesia

French Polynesia

French Polynesia is an overseas country of the French Republic . It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory...

, and therefore had the easternmost distribution of all Aplonis species in the Pacific region.

History

The Huahine Starling is known only by a subfossil

Subfossil

Subfossil refers to remains whose fossilization process is not complete, either for lack of time or because the conditions in which they were buried were not optimal for fossilization....

 tarsometatarsus

Tarsometatarsus

The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is found in the lower leg of certain tetrapods, namely birds.It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsal and metatarsal bones...

 unearthed in 1984 by American archaeologist

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 and anthropologist

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 Yosihiko H. Sinoto

Yosihiko H. Sinoto

Yosihiko H. Sinoto is a Japanese-born American anthropologist at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii...

 of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. It was found at the archaeological site

Archaeological site

An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

 of Fa'ahia

Fa'ahia

Fa'ahia is an early Polynesian occupation site in the north of the island of Huahine, in the Society Islands, French Polynesia. With the neighbouring Vaito'otia site it dates to between 700 CE and 1200 CE. Because much of the site is waterlogged, artefacts made of organic materials have been well...

 in the north of Huahine and scientifically described by David Steadman

David Steadman

David William Steadman is the curator of ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.His research has concentrated on the evolution, biogeography, conservation, and extinction of tropical birds, particularly in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. He has also...

 in 1989.

The bone is 38 mm long. Comparison with the tarsometatarsi of other Aplonis species shows that the Huahine Starling was the second largest Aplonis species (the largest being the Samoan Starling

Samoan Starling

The Samoan Starling is a large starling of the family Sturnidae. It is found in American Samoa and Samoa. The species has a dark brown, glossy appearance, with a long bill. Its natural habitat is tropical moist forest on volcanic islands, where it is common and more conspicuous than the...

 Aplonis atrifusca). The bones from the Fa'ahia

Fa'ahia

Fa'ahia is an early Polynesian occupation site in the north of the island of Huahine, in the Society Islands, French Polynesia. With the neighbouring Vaito'otia site it dates to between 700 CE and 1200 CE. Because much of the site is waterlogged, artefacts made of organic materials have been well...

 site have an age range between 750 and 1250 CE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

. Its extinction of this species is possibly a result of the early settlement of Huahine; forests were cleared, non-native plants were introduced and non-native birds as well as the Pacific Rat became established there.

The find of the Huahine Starling bone is considered important in paleornithological

Paleornithology

Paleornithology also known as Avian Paleontology is the scientific study of bird evolution and fossil birds. It is a mix of ornithology and paleontology. Paleornithology began with the discovery of Archaeopteryx. The reptilian relationship of birds and their ancestors, the theropod dinosaurs, are...

 circles because it has expanded our knowledge of the genus Aplonis and its biogeographical history. According to David Steadman it is possible that the 1774 painting by Georg Forster

Georg Forster

Johann Georg Adam Forster was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific...

 which depicts a mysterious bird

Bay Thrush

The Bay "Thrush", also known as the Bay Starling or the Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, is an extinct bird species of uncertain taxonomic relationships that once lived on the island of Raiatea , the second largest of the Society Islands in French Polynesia.-History:The species is known only from a 1774...

 from the island of Raiatea

Raiatea

Raiatea , is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The island is widely regarded as the 'center' of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the organised migrations to Hawaii, Aotearoa and other parts of East Polynesia started at...

(formerly known as Ulieta) is not of a thrush or a honeyeater, as previously hypothesised, but of a relative of the Huahine Starling. This suggests that Aplonis starlings may once have had a more extensive range in the Society Islands.