Matuku, Scofield & Worthy & Tennyson, 2010

Scofield, R. Paul, Worthy, Trevor H. & Tennyson, Alan J. D., 2010, A Heron (Aves: Ardeidae) from the Early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of Southern New Zealand, Records of the Australian Museum 62 (1), pp. 89-104 : 93

Matuku n.gen.

Type species. Matuku otagoense n.sp.

Diagnosis. Tarsometatarsus shaft relatively short and robust: trochlea metatarsi II with slight medial deflection; trochlea metatarsi III in line with axis of shaft; trochlea metatarsi IV deeply grooved distally; foramen vasculare distalis with dorsal opening distinct from intertrochlear incision and large; and crista planataris medialis dorso plantarly thick. The coracoid is distinguished by three autapomorphies:

1 the extremely short distance from the cranial side of the clavicular facet (facies articularis clavicularis) to the omal tip of the facet;

2 a broad triangular (impressio ligamentum acrocoracohumeralis), rather than the rectilinear impression normally seen in herons;

3 the clavicle facet (facies clavicularis) on the acrocoracoid (proc. acrocoracoideus) overhangs the supracoracoidal sulcus as a prominent lip, rather than the acrocoracoid being in line with the medial margin of the sulcus.

Etymology. Matuku is the New Zealand Māori word for a heron. As the name ends in a “u” it is treated as neuter as specified by Article 30.2.4 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999).