Pulsatrix arredondoi Brodkorb, 1969

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 45-46

26. † Pulsatrix arredondoi Brodkorb, 1969

Arredondo’s Owl (Búho de Arredondo)

Pulsatrix arredondoi Brodkorb, 1969 , Quart. Jour. Fla. Acad. Sci. 31: 112 [for 1968].

Pulstarix arredondoi : Louchart 2005: table 2 (lapsus calami).

Puslatrix arredondoi : Orihuela 2019: 62 (lapsus calami).

Puslatrix arredondoi : Orihuela et al. 2020a: table 1 (lapsus calami).

Holotype.—Left tarsometatarsus, PB 8420 ( Brodkorb 1969: 112, fig. 1: left [anterior], top [proximal], bottom [distal], right [internal], Arredondo 1975, fig. 19*: B [anterior], 1982: 41, fig. 4: left [anterior], right [lateral, not ‘posterior’]). Collected in 1960 by O. Arredondo ( Brodkorb 1969: 112).

Type locality.— Cueva de Paredones ( ACP), c. 3 km south-west of Ceiba del Agua , municipality of Caimito [formerly San Antonio de los Baños], Artemisa [formerly La Habana] province, Cuba ( Brodkorb 1969: 112 [= ‘ Caverna Paredones’]). Fig. 4 .

Referred material.— Tarsometatarsus: right lacking calcaneal ridge, CZACC 6.4126 ( Arredondo & González Gotera 1982: 2); incomplete left, OA 3216 (cf. Arredondo & Olson 1994: 436); left without part of the calcaneal ridge and portions of trochleae III and IV, CAZGA-267 ( Jiménez & Orihuela 2021: 166–167, fig. 2B [anterior]); proximal half of left, MNHNCu 75.4808 (Suárez 2020a: 31, fig. 12: C [anterior], D [proximal]); fragmentary distal left lacking trochlea IV and lateral border, CAZGA-268 (= ‘CAZG04’ and ‘CAZGA04’ of Orihuela 2019: 63, fig. 6 [not ‘right’]: A [anterior], B [posterior], Jiménez & Orihuela 2021: 167, fig. 2A [anterior]).

Distribution.—Cave and asphalt deposits in west Cuba (see Appendix). Artemisa. Caimito: ACP = type locality ( Brodkorb 1969: 112 [‘ Pulsatrix arredondoi , new species’], Arredondo 1972a: table 1, 1972c: table 1, 1975: 150, 1976: table 1, 1982: 41, 1984: 25, Arredondo & González Gotera 1982: 1, Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1, 2002b: table 1; WS unpubl.). Mayabeque. San José de las Lajas: YCC ( Jiménez & Orihuela 2021: 166–167, fig. 2 = tarsometatarsus: B [anterior]), YCM ( Orihuela 2019: 63, fig. 6 = tarsometatarsus [left not ‘right’]: A [anterior], B [posterior], Jiménez & Orihuela 2021: 166–167, fig. 2A [anterior]). Matanzas. Cárdenas: MCA ( Arredondo & Olson 1994: 436), Martí: MLB (Suárez 2020a: 31, fig. 12 = tarsometatarsus: C [anterior], D [proximal]). Sancti Spíritus. Sancti Spíritus: SPC (cf. Orihuela 2019: 63, Suárez 2020a: 31, Jiménez & Orihuela 2021: 169).

Direct 14 C dating .—Late Holocene ( YCM): 1,390 ± 30 14 C yr BP (680–600 BC) ( Orihuela 2019: 63, tarsometatarsus; see also Jiménez & Orihuela 2021: 170).

Notes.—Arredondo’s Owl is the only Pulsatrix in the Antillean subregion ( Brodkorb 1969: 112, Olson 1978: 106, Arredondo 1982: 41, 1984: 25), and was not of large size (contra Gutiérrez Domech et al. 2018: 42). Its remains are uncommon in Cuban cave or asphalt deposits, being currently unknown from sinkholes. Jiménez & Orihuela (2021: 169) indicated the presence of this taxon at two localities in the province of Artemisa and one in Matanzas, but the reverse is true (see ‘Distribution’). Material from SPC, central Cuba, consists of a tarsometatarsus identified during early 1990 (O. Jiménez Vázquez in litt. 2021). Although the locality has been cited in the subsequent literature, the specimen was never mentioned. The tarsometatarsus is the only described skeletal element of P. arredondoi ( Brodkorb 1969, Arredondo & González Gotera 1982, Arredondo 1984, Suárez 2020 a, Jiménez & Orihuela 2021).