Auckland Islands shore plover | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Charadriidae |
Genus: | Thinornis |
Species: | T. rossii |
Binomial name | |
Thinornis rossii G. R. Gray, 1845 |
The Auckland Islands shore plover (Thinornis rossii), also called Ross’s plover, is a small extinct plover known only from a single specimen, apparently collected in the Auckland Islands in 1840 by the crew of HMS Erebus, and now in the collection of the British Natural History Museum. Its status as a species distinct from the shore plover was uncertain for many years. Charles Fleming speculated about whether the lone specimen represented an unknown intermediate plumage, a melanistic mutant, or a separate species. The consensus today, however, is that it is an immature Thinornis novaeseelandiae with an incorrectly-recorded location.