Oscaravis Suárez & Olson, 2009

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 25-27

Genus † Oscaravis Suárez & Olson, 2009

Oscaravis Suárez & Olson, 2009a , Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 122: 106. Type, by monotypy, Teratornis olsoni Arredondo & Arredondo.

10. † Oscaravis olsoni (Arredondo & Arredondo, 2002) Cuban Teratorn (Teratorno Cubano)

Teratornis olsoni Arredondo & Arredondo, 2002b , Poeyana 470–475: 16 [for 1999].

Teratornis sp. : Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100.

Teratornis olsoni : Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: 16.

‘ Teratornis ’ olsoni : Suárez 2004a: 124.

Oscaravis olsoni : Suárez & Olson 2009a: 111.

History.— 1969: holotype collected in a cave deposit from western Cuba by members of IGP ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b). Winter 1997: first record of Teratornithidae in Cuba, the West Indies, and outside continental America, is announced ( Suárez & Arredondo 1997). 13 December 2002: original description (not ‘ 26 May 1999 ’, see ‘Notes’) of Teratornis olsoni published ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b), based on some of the material then known. 1 January 2009: first revision of T. olsoni with description of new material from Cuban cave and asphalt deposits, and erection of the genus Oscaravis ( Suárez & Olson 2009a).

Holotype.—Near-complete right femur, IGP/ACC 400-649, at CZACC ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: 16, figs. 1* [anterior], 2* left [anterior], 3*A: reversed [anterior], Suárez & Olson 2009a: 111, fig. 7, left in each pair: A [anterior], B [posterior], C [proximal], D [distal], Orihuela 2019: 59, fig. 2: A [anterior], B [posterior]). Collected in 1969 by members of IGP at the type locality ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: 15).

Other material.— Quadrate: incomplete right, OA 3205 ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: 16, fig. 4*: A [lateral], B [ventral], Suárez & Olson 2009a: 111, fig. 3, left in each pair: A [lateral], B [posterior], C [medial], D [ventral]). Femur: fragmentary distal half of right, OJ P-8 (as ‘P-8’, in the original description), at CZACC; internal condyle of left, OA 3151. See Arredondo & Arredondo (2002b: 16).

Type locality.—Cueva de Paredones ( ACP), c. 3 km south-west of Ceiba del Agua, municipality of Caimito, Artemisa [not ‘Mayabeque’ as stated by Orihuela 2019: fig. 2] province, Cuba ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: 16). Fig. 4.

Distribution.—Cave and asphalt deposits in west Cuba (see Appendix). Artemisa. Caimito: ACP = type locality ( Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100 [‘ Teratornis sp. ’], Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1 [‘ Teratornis sp. ], 2002b: 16 [‘ Teratornis olsoni sp. nov. ’]), ASA ( Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100 [‘ Teratornis sp. ’], Suárez 2000b: 68 [‘ Teratornis ’], Suárez & Olson 2009a: 111–112, figs. 4 = coracoid: B–D [dorsal], F [sternal], 5 = humerus: C [palmar], D [ventral], 6 = humerus: C [palmar], D [anconal], E [distal], 8 = tibiotarsi: B–C [anterior]). Mayabeque. Quivicán: YBL (Jiménez Vázquez et al. 1995: 25 [‘Buitre gigante ind.’], Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100 [‘ Teratornis sp. ’], Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: 16 [‘ Teratornis olsoni sp. nov. ’]), YIN ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: 16 [after correction of the locality of OA 3205, by Suárez & Olson 2009a: 111]). Matanzas. Martí: MLB ( Suárez & Olson 2009a: 112, fig. 8 = tarsometatarsus: E [anterior], Suárez 2020a: 10–12, fig. 5 = tibiotarsus: A [anterior], B [distal], C [medial]; fig. 5 = tarsometatarsi: D [anterior], E [posterior], F [distal]). See ‘Notes’.

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 rare in Cuban Quaternary fossil localities, wherein it is the only known extinct avian family ( Suárez & Olson 2009a). Formerly described ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b) as a smaller species of the North American genus Teratornis L. Miller. Orihuela (2019: 57) erroneously mentioned the limited flight capabilities of the Cuban Teratorn, which is incorrect (see Olson & Alvarenga 2002: 704, Suárez & Olson 2009a: 114). While revising fossil mammals, for a study published elsewhere ( Silva Taboada et al. 2008), I identified an additional fragmentary specimen referable to Teratornithidae . This was apparently collected in central Cuba by Carlos de la Torre et al. during their field work (see Brown 1913, Goldberg et al. 2017), but was obviously not seen by Wetmore (1928) for his study of fossil birds from Cuba. This fact probably indicates that the bone is not from Baños de Ciego Montero. The specimen is stored at the Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Habana, mixed with fragmentary material of mammals of the same colour and degree of mineralisation (recalling fossils from Las Llanadas and sinkhole deposits in northern Villa Clara), and without a catalogue number. Although no precise date, locality or collectors are certainly known, probably the specimen constitutes the first material of the Teratornithidae collected in Cuba, but this requires further study.

The original description of the Cuban Teratorn was published in Poeyana, special number 470–475, for 26 May 1999. However, the issue was not printed until more than three years later, on 13 December 2002, as recorded in the Poeyana archives at the Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática (La Habana) library. Following the ICZN (1999, Art. 21.4), the original description of T. olsoni must be dated 13 December 2002. The same holds for original descriptions of other taxa published in the same issue, including Gigantohierax suarezi Arredondo & Arredondo (see below). Both these species were incorrectly cited as being published in 2003 by Arredondo Antúnez & Arredondo de la Mata (2012) and Arredondo de la Mata & Arredondo Antúnez (2012).