Extinct boobies return from the dead

[Staff]

Extinct boobies return from the dead
* 13 August 2009

Extinct boobies return from the dead - environment - 13 August 2009 - New Scientist
excerpts from above:

The Tasman booby (Sula dactylatra tasmani) was first described in 1988 from fossils found on Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, off the east coast of Australia, but went extinct in the late 18th century after being eaten by European sailors.

Now, a team of geneticists, palaeontologists and naturalists has declared the bird very much alive. It is living among its fossil ancestors on both islands, and also on New Zealand's Kermadec Islands to the east (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0478).

So why was it thought to be extinct in the first place? "It is a bit curious," Steeves says. Female Tasman boobies are larger than the male, so maybe a female fossil was compared to a living male and didn't match, she suggests.