Forbes' snipe

Forbes' snipe
Extinct  (1800s?)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Coenocorypha
Species: C. chathamica
Binomial name
Coenocorypha chathamica
(Forbes, 1893)

The Forbes' snipe, Coenocorypha chathamica, was a species of New Zealand snipe endemic to the Chatham Islands. It was the larger of two species found there, the smaller being the surviving Chatham Island snipe. It was never seen alive by scientists and is known only from fossil material collected on the islands. Why it became extinct while its smaller relative survived is a mystery, as is the exact timing of its extinction, although it may have survived, unnoticed, until the 19th century.

References

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