Hakawai melvillei Temporal range:
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Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Genus: | †
Hakawai De Pietri et al. 2015 |
Species: | †H. melvillei
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Binomial name | |
†Hakawai melvillei De Pietri et al. 2015
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Hakawai is an extinct genus of prehistoric birds that lived during the early Miocene to middle Miocene in New Zealand. According to a 2015 paper, Hakawai melvillei was a representative of a large group of birds that comprises the seedsnipes of family Thinocoridae) and the plains-wanderer (family Pedionomidae). This discovery sheds light on evolutionary processes at work when South America, Antarctica, Australia, and New Zealand were all parts of Gondwanaland. [1]