Tyto cravesae Suárez & Olson, 2015

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 43-44

24. † Tyto cravesae Suárez & Olson, 2015

Craves’s Giant Barn Owl (Lechuza Gigante de Craves)

Tyto cravesae Suárez & Olson, 2015 , Zootaxa 4020: 545.

Tyto noeli : Arredondo 1972a: 416 (part).

Tyto sp. : Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000: 309, table 2.

History.— March 1972: first known material described as Tyto noeli (see Arredondo 1972a, Suárez & Olson 2015: 547). 5 June 1998: holotype collected by WS in a cave wall cavity at the type locality, western Cuba ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 545). 23 September 2015: original description published ( Suárez & Olson 2015), including some specimens formerly in the type series of T. noeli (see ‘Other material’). 22 May 2020: single specimen known from asphalt deposits (a paratype) illustrated (Suárez 2020a).

Holotype.—Associated postcranial elements of one individual, MNHNCu 75.590 (cited figures from Suárez & Olson 2015), consisting of proximal half of a left humerus (fig. 3A [anconal]), proximal end of a right ulna, a near-complete right carpometacarpus (fig. 3C [external]) and a near-complete right femur (fig. 4: C [anterior], G [internal]). Collected 5 June 1998 by WS in an amoeboid-shaped patch of red clay matrix, in a wall cavity near (c. 30 m) ‘Salón del Pozo’ (not ‘Type locality: Salón del Pozo’, as stated by Orihuela 2019: 62) at the type locality ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 546).

Other material.— Coracoid: sternal end of left, OA 832 ( Suárez & Olson 2015: fig. 2D [dorsal]). Humerus: proximal end of right, OA 826 = paratype of T. noeli ( Arredondo 1972a: 417, fig. 2 [images in figs. 2 and 4 of the original description are therein reversed]: 4, top [anconal], 1976: 183, fig. 10a: top right [anconal]); distal half of right, OA 804 = paratype of T. noeli ( Arredondo 1972a: 417, fig. 4: 4, bottom [anconal], 1976: 183, fig. 10a: bottom right [anconal]); shaft of left, WS 077. Femur: left lacking a proximal segment of shaft, MNHNCu 75.594 ( Suárez & Olson 2015, fig. 4: D [anterior], E [internal]); proximal end of left, CZACC unnumbered. Tibiotarsus: distal half, MNHNCu 75.593 ( Suárez & Olson 2015: fig. 5F [anterior]), and distal end, OA 831 = paratype of T. noeli ( Suárez & Olson 2015: fig. 5E [anterior]), of left. Tarsometatarsus: right, MNHNCu 75.596 ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 547, Figs. 6C: proximal portion [anterior], 7D [anterior], 8A: proximal portion [internal]); right lacking distal end, OA 828 = paratype of T. noeli ( Arredondo 1972a: 417, fig. 2: 2 [anterior], Suárez & Olson 2015: fig. 7E [anterior]); proximal, MNHNCu 75.595, immature ( Suárez & Olson 2015: fig. 6B [anterior]) and distal, MNHNCu 75.592 ( Suárez & Olson 2015: fig. 6H [anterior]), WS 09I, immature ( Suárez & Olson 2015: fig. 6G [anterior]) ends of right; shaft of right, CZACC unnumbered; distal ends of left, MNHNCu 75.591, MNHNCu 75.4801 (Suárez 2020a: 30–31, fig. 12: A [anterior], B [distal]). See Suárez & Olson (2015: 547).

Type locality.—Cueva de Paredones ( ACP), c. 3 km south-west of Ceiba del Agua, municipality of Caimito (not ‘San Antonio de los Baños’ as stated by Orihuela 2019: 62), Artemisa province, Cuba ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 246). Fig. 4.

Distribution.—Cave and asphalt deposits in west Cuba (see Appendix). Artemisa. Caimito: ACP = type locality ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 545–546 [‘ Tyto cravesae , new species’]), ACT ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 547). Mayabeque. Quivicán: YBL and YTU ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 547). Matanzas. Cárdenas: MCE ( Orihuela 2019: 62), Martí: MLB ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 547, Suárez 2020a: 30 [see ‘Other material’]). Sancti Spíritus. Sancti Spíritus: SPC (cf. CLV).

Direct 14 C dating .—None. For dating of other bird species at MLB, see Antigone cubensis , Gymnogyps varonai and Ornimegalonyx oteroi , and of associated extinct mammals ( Parocnus browni = 11,880 ± 420 to 4,960 ± 280 years 14 C BP), see Jull et al. (2004) and Steadman et al. (2005).

Notes.—Not ‘the rarest of Cuban tytonid owls’ as claimed by Orihuela (2019: 62; see T. pollens above). T. cravesae is about the size of T. ostologa from Hispaniola, being less robust, but having a femur with the deepest shaft of all known West Indian giant barn owls ( Suárez & Olson 2015: 548). None of the Cuban large barn owls exhibits (contra Orihuela 2019: 57) ‘anatomical adaptations that suggest pronounced ground-dwelling’.