Sylviornis
| Sylviornis Temporal range: Holocene | |
|---|---|
| Skeletal reconstruction, with known bones in white | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Family: | †Sylviornithidae |
| Genus: | †Sylviornis Poplin, 1980 |
| Species: | †S. neocaledoniae |
| Binomial name | |
| †Sylviornis neocaledoniae Poplin, 1980 | |
Sylviornis is an extinct genus of large, flightless bird that was endemic to the islands of New Caledonia in the Western Pacific. It is considered to constitute one of two genera in the extinct family Sylviornithidae, alongside Megavitiornis from Fiji, which are related to the Galliformes, the group containing the turkeys, chickens, quails and pheasants. Sylviornis was never encountered alive by scientists, but it is known from many thousands of subfossil bones found in deposits, some of them from the Holocene, on New Caledonia and the adjacent Île des Pins. It was likely hunted to extinction, shortly after the first human arrival to New Caledonia around 1500 BC.