Trevor Worthy

Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates.

Biography Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High School. He began his career as a largely self-taught palaeontologist, after becoming interested in fossils through caving. Worthy completed his BSc and MSc at the University of Waikato, then did a second Master's degree at Victoria University of Wellington.

In 1998, Worthy excavated subfossil bones in Fiji, where he found remains of the flightless Viti Levu giant pigeon (Natunaornis gigoura), the Viti Levu scrubfowl (Megapodius amissus), the Viti Levu snipe (Coenocorypha miratropica), the giant Fiji ground frog (Platymantis megabotoniviti), and the small freshwater crocodile Volia athollandersoni. The holotypes of these species were deposited in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

For years, Worthy has been involved in the excavation of Miocene fossils (the Saint Bathans Fauna) from a prehistoric lake in Central Otago, including the oldest known moa bones, the oldest tuatara bones, and the first known fossil land mammal from New Zealand.

Worthy's research, based in Waitomo Caves, Masterton, Nelson, and Te Papa, had been funded by grants from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology since 1991, but in 2005 his funding was cut by the Foundation.

Worthy is author or co-author of numerous research papers about prehistoric life in New Zealand. For the book The Lost World of the Moa (2002), he and Richard Holdaway received the D. L. Serventy Medal from the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 2003 for an outstanding published work about Australasian avifauna.

Below is a list of taxa that Worthy has contributed to naming: YearTaxonAuthors2026Porphyrio claytongreenei sp. nov.Worthy, Scofield, Suresh, Barker, Wilson, Williams, & Baker 2026Strigops insulaborealis sp. nov.Worthy, Scofield, Suresh, Barker, Wilson, Williams, & Baker 2023Lumakoala blackae gen. et sp. nov.Crichton, Beck, Couzens, Worthy, Camens, & Prideaux 2022Archaehierax sylvestris gen. et sp. nov.Mather, Lee, Camens, & Worthy 2019Litorallus livezeyi gen. et sp. nov.Mather, Tennyson, Scofield, De Pietri, Hand, Archer, Handley, & Worthy 2019Priscaweka parvales gen. et sp. nov.Mather, Tennyson, Scofield, De Pietri, Hand, Archer, Handley, & Worthy 2016Oligonomus milleri gen. et sp. nov.De Pietri, Camens, & Worthy 2015Mwalau walterlinii gen. et sp. nov.Worthy, Hawkins, Bedford, & Spriggs 2011Nambashag microglaucus sp. nov.Worthy 2010Kuiornis indicator gen. et sp. nov.Worthy, Hand, Nguyen, Tennyson, Worthy, Scofield, Boles, & Archer 2008Tirarinetta kanunka gen. et sp. nov.Worthy 2008Bountyphaps obsoleta gen. et sp. nov.Worthy & Wragg 2008Manuherikia douglasi sp. nov.Worthy, Tennyson, Hand, & Scofield 2004Vitirallus watlingi gen. et sp. nov.Worthy 2003Gallicolumba leonpascoi gen. et sp. nov.Worthy & Wragg 2002Volia athollandersoni gen. et sp. nov.Molnar, Worthy, & Willis