Not only is the Hawaiian Islands a beautiful getaway, it was once the Island of Ducks! There used to be a peculiar duck here, called the hagfish duck!
Restoration of the blind mole duck
Found on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands, it lived in the middle to late Holocene, the hagfish duck skull is about 36.5 mm long, weighing between 692 and 1072 g, the size of the body can be roughly referred to today's pintail duck or female mallard duck! The head shell of the hagfish is about 26.7 mm wide and the head is very broad. It has a large trigeminal nervous system similar to that of platypus, so they have a very strong electrical perception ability that can be used to sense the presence and orientation of prey, which is somewhat similar to the ability of hammerhead sharks. However, their orbital holes are small, not as large as the swollen nose area of other geese, but their sense of smell is very strong, and they can also be used to find prey. The hagfish has degraded its ability to fly, becoming a walking duck, and its restorations depict their wings as small as possible.
Fossilized hagfish duck skull
The eyesight of the hagfish is not very good, because their optic nerve foramen are relatively small, so scientists think they should be nocturnal birds. At the same time, scientists have also found that their metatarsal bones are short and not suitable for swimming. Sure enough, the islandized animals are so strange!