![\"Life](\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14307e-Aeviperditus-gracilis.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLife reconstruction of the St Bathans bowerbird (Aeviperditus gracilis). Image credit: Sasha Votyakova \/ Te Papa \/ CC BY 4.0.<\/p>\n
The newly-identified species inhabited New Zealand \u2014 far from its likely close relatives in Australia and New Guinea \u2014 during the Miocene epoch, between 19 and 14 million years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis discovery provides a wonderful and unique insight into the biological history of Aotearoa birds,\u201d said Dr. Nic Rawlence, Director of the Otago Palaeogenetics Laboratory.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo many people in the world, bowerbirds were made famous by Sir David Attenborough\u2019s nature documentaries and their elaborate courtship behaviors, where males construct an arched structure called a bower, decorated with sticks and sometimes brightly colored objects like fruit, leaves or even pieces of plastic, all in an effort to attract a mate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Named Aeviperditus gracilis, or the St Bathans bowerbird, the new bird was much smaller than living bowerbird species.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is smaller than living and extinct bowerbirds, weighing in at 33 g, compared to 96-265 g for other species,\u201d Dr. Rawlence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts foot bone is most similar to avenue bower builders that include the brightly-colored flame bowerbird and the satin bowerbird.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this bird is indeed a relative of the bowerbirds, it could represent an entirely new songbird family for Aotearoa,\u201d said Dr. Elizabeth Steell, a researcher at the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s especially significant given the limited understanding we have of the ancient songbird fossil record in this region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe St Bathans bowerbird is the latest songbird lineage to have a long evolutionary history in Aotearoa, where the oldest members of many different groups occur here including huia, k\u014dkako, t\u012beke, piopio and mohua.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s likely that all these species represent the descendants of a rapid burst of evolution and dispersal from Australia to New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike some of the unique animals from St Bathans, there are no living descendants left in Aotearoa.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bowerbird would have been particularly susceptible to cooling temperatures in the lead-up to the Ice Ages and the associated changes in forest make up and distribution, which likely contributed to its extinction,\u201d Dr. Rawlence said.<\/p>\n