Rascló de l'Ascensió

Rascló de l'Ascensió
Mundia elpenor
	;
Estat de conservació
	Extint
UICN	22728746
Taxonomia
Superregne	Holozoa
Regne	Animalia
Fílum	Chordata
Classe	Aves
Ordre	Gruiformes
Família	Rallidae
Gènere	Mundia
Espècie	Mundia elpenor ; (Olson, 1973)
Nomenclatura
Sinònims	Atlantisia elpenor
Protònim	Atlantisia elpenor

El rascló de l'Ascensió (Mundia elpenor) és un ocell extint de la família dels ràl·lids (Rallidae) i única espècie del gènere Mundia (Bourne, Ashmole et Simmons, 2003). Probablement habitava les zones desèrtiques de l'illa de l'Ascensió i potser es va extingir després de la introducció de gats fers en 1815.

La descripció de l´ocell feta per Peter Mundy

L´any 1656 l´anglès Peter Mundy (Penryn, Cornualla; 1597 – 1667) va trobar a l´illa de l´Ascenció un ocell "estrany [...] que no pot ni nedar ni volar".^[1] Mundy va mostrar la seva estranyesa pel fet d´haver trobat un ocell així a un lloc tan aïllat^[2]

Classificació

Fins fa poc el rascló de l´Ascenció havia estat classificat, juntament amb altres dos ràl·lids, dins del gènere Atlantisia (Olson 1973). El 2003 Bourne/Ashmole/Simmons el van situar dins d´un nou gènere Mundia, argumentant que els ancestres desconeguts dels tres membres de l´anterior gènere són probablement ocells diferents^[3]

Referències

A Wikimedia Commons hi ha contingut multimèdia relatiu a: Rascló de l'Ascensió

↑ «The Travels Of Peter Mundy, In Europe And Asia». "a strange kind of fowle, much bigger then our sterlings ore stares: collour gray or dappled, white and blacke feathers intermixed, eies red like rubies, wings very imperfitt, such as wherewith they cannot raise themselves from the ground. They were taken running, in which they are exceeding swift, helping themselves a little with their wings (as it is said of the estridge), shortt billed, cloven footed, thatt can neither fly nor swymme". [Consulta: 26 desembre 2020].
↑ «Ibíd.». "beeing cloven footed and withoutt wings on an iland far from any other land [...] how they shold come thither?". [Consulta: 26 desembre 2020].
↑ «A new subfossil Night Heron and a new genus for the extinct Rail from Ascension Island». " Olson observed that ‘there is no reason to believe that the ancestors of (these birds) did not arrive at their islands as windblown strays from continental areas, just as other species of rails still do’. This implies that all three species must [...] be more closely related to their (unknown) continental ancestor(s) than each other. Yet Olson then grouped the three species as the only members of a single genus Atlantisia on morphological grounds, despite their presumably independent origins and large difference in size [...] We therefore propose a new generic name for the Ascension Rail. MUNDIA NEW GENUS ETYMOLOGY: Named after Peter Mundy, the only man to record it alive, on 7 June 1656". [Consulta: 26 desembre 2020].

[1] «The Travels Of Peter Mundy, In Europe And Asia». "a strange kind of fowle, much bigger then our sterlings ore stares: collour gray or dappled, white and blacke feathers intermixed, eies red like rubies, wings very imperfitt, such as wherewith they cannot raise themselves from the ground. They were taken running, in which they are exceeding swift, helping themselves a little with their wings (as it is said of the estridge), shortt billed, cloven footed, thatt can neither fly nor swymme". [Consulta: 26 desembre 2020].

[2] «Ibíd.». "beeing cloven footed and withoutt wings on an iland far from any other land [...] how they shold come thither?". [Consulta: 26 desembre 2020].

[3] «A new subfossil Night Heron and a new genus for the extinct Rail from Ascension Island». " Olson observed that ‘there is no reason to believe that the ancestors of (these birds) did not arrive at their islands as windblown strays from continental areas, just as other species of rails still do’. This implies that all three species must [...] be more closely related to their (unknown) continental ancestor(s) than each other. Yet Olson then grouped the three species as the only members of a single genus Atlantisia on morphological grounds, despite their presumably independent origins and large difference in size [...] We therefore propose a new generic name for the Ascension Rail. MUNDIA NEW GENUS ETYMOLOGY: Named after Peter Mundy, the only man to record it alive, on 7 June 1656". [Consulta: 26 desembre 2020].

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