| Auckland Islands Shore Plover | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Charadriidae |
| Genus: | Thinornis |
| Species: | T. rossi |
| Binomial name | |
| Thinornis rossi G. R. Gray, 1845[1] |
|
The Auckland Islands Shore Plover (Thinornis rossi), also called the Auckland Island Shore Plover or Ross’s Plover, is a small extinct plover known only from one 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 taxon separate from the Shore Plover is uncertain. Charles Fleming speculated about whether the lone specimen represented an unknown intermediate plumage, a melanistic mutant or a separate species.[2]