Science / Medicine : Fossils of Extinct Birds Uncovered

Federal scientists reported last week that they have uncovered fossil remains of 32 extinct bird species in Hawaii.

Helen James and her husband, Storrs Olson, researchers for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, described their findings in booklets published by the American Ornithologists Union.

James said in an interview that, before their discoveries, there were only 16 known extinct bird types in Hawaii and 75 in the entire world.

One of the most unusual birds they have discovered is a duck that couldn’t fly--a 2-foot high waddler, with tiny wings, massive, muscular hind limbs and a strange beak. Some had teethlike bones or turtle-type jaws. James told Reuters the duck apparently had no ground enemies in Hawaii so it did not have to fly to escape predators.

The researchers estimated extinction of the birds started sometime after humans first arrived in Hawaii about 1,600 years ago. Grassland was turned into farm fields, hunters shot prey, and rats, dogs and diseases entered the scene.