Another Look at Megaegotheles, a Large Owlet-Nightjar from New Zealand

1 January 1977

journal article
Published by Taylor & Francis in Emu - Austral Ornithology

Vol. 77 (1) , 1-8
https://doi.org/10.1071/MU9770001

Abstract

RICH, P. V. and R. J. SCARLETT. 1976. Another look at Megaegotheles, a large owlet-nightjar from New Zealand. Emu 77: 1–8. Megaegotheles, a Pleistocene to sub-Recent relative of the Australasian owlet-nightjars Aegotheles, is re-examined and found to exhibit increase in body-size with increasing latitude. Although the wings of this form are not markedly larger than those of Aegotheles, the hind limb is markedly larger, thus suggesting that Megaegotheles may have been flightless or nearly so, the first-known occurrence of this phenomenon in the Caprimulgiformes.

Keywords

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

Antarctic dispersal routes, wandering continents and the origin of Australia's non–passeriform avifauna
Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, 1975
Weights and Wing Areas in North American Birds
The Auk, 1938