Buteogallus irpus Suárez & Olson, 2021

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 38-39

19. † Buteogallus irpus Suárez & Olson, 2021

Wolf Hawk (Gavilán Lobo)

Buteogallus irpus Suárez & Olson, 2021 , Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 141: 259.

Titanohierax gloveralleni : Woods 1980: 8 (part) [Hispaniola].

Titanohierax sp. : Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 28 [Hispaniola].

Amplibuteo sp. : Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100 [ Cuba].

Amplibuteo woodwardi : Suárez 2004a: 121 [ Cuba].

History.— 24 April 1978: Charles Woods ( UF) collects the holotype in a cave deposit in the Dominican Republic ( Suárez & Olson 2021: 260; see Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 28). July 1980: material of large Accipitridae from Hispaniola referred to Titanohierax gloveralleni Wetmore by Woods (1980: 8). 5 August 1982: holotype identified as ‘ Titanohierax sp. ’ by Olson & Hilgartner (1982: 28). 2 March 1995: paratype collected in a cave deposit in western Cuba ( Suárez & Olson 2021: 259; see Suárez 2004a: 121). Winter 1997: mentioned for Cuba as ‘ Amplibuteo sp. ’ by Suárez & Arredondo (1997: 100–101). April 2004: Cuban material compared with continental fossil taxa and identified as A. woodwardi L. Miller , but shows some differences interpreted as individual variation ( Suárez 2004a: 122). 10 September 2021: original description of Buteogallus irpus published ( Suárez & Olson 2021) based on fossils from Hispaniola and Cuba, with the extinct genus Amplibuteo Campbell, 1979 , treated as synonym of Buteogallus .

Holotype.—Left tarsometatarsus lacking proximal end, USNM PAL 299573 ( Suárez & Olson 2021: figs. 1: A [anterior], B [medial], C [distal], D [posterior], E [lateral], 2: A [anterior]). Collected on 24 April 1978 by Charles Woods, under 60 cm of red earth, at the type locality ( Suárez & Olson 2021; see also Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 28).

Other material.— Partial skeleton: WS 365 (see Suárez 2004a: Figs. 1–2), including: one cervical (axis) and three thoracic vertebrae, seven fragments of ribs, fragmentary pelvis (fig. 2E [lateral]), proximal fragmentary right humerus (fig. 2A [palmar], B [anconal]), distal fragments of left humerus (fig. 2C [palmar]), segment of shaft of left ulna (fig. 2D [palmar]), left fragmentary femur without distal end (fig. 2G [anterior]), proximal and distal fragmentary ends of right femur (fig. 2F–F’ [anterior]), shaft of left tibiotarsus (fig. 2I [posterior]), proximal right fibula (fig. 2H [internal]), left tarsometatarsus lacking inner calcaneal ridge, part of the metatarsal facet, wing of trochlea II, and posterior surface of trochlea III (fig. 1A [anterior], fig. 2J [anterior], K [proximal], L [posterior], Suárez & Olson 2008: fig. 1C [anterior], 2021: fig. 2B [anterior]), left digit I, phalanx 1 (fig. 2M [dorsal]) and phalanx 2 (fig. 2N [lateral]), left digit III, phalanx 2 and phalanx 3, right digit III, phalanx 4 (fig. 2O [lateral]), right digit IV, phalanx 4. Collected on 2 March 1995 by WS. Cited figures are from Suárez (2004a), other than where indicated.

Type locality.—Cueva de las Abejas (18°01’N, 71°67’W; elevation c. 20 m), near Cabo Rojo, 8 km south-east of Pedernales, Pedernales province, Dominican Republic. Quaternary, probably late Pleistocene, but not directly dated ( Suárez & Olson 2021: 260; see Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 28, Steadman et al. 2019: 321).

Distribution.—Cave deposit in west Cuba (see Appendix). Artemisa. Caimito: ASA ([Sandoval III low deposit, see Suárez 2000b: 67–68] Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100–101 [‘ Amplibuteo sp. ’], Suárez 2004a: 121 [‘ Amplibuteo woodwardi ’], Suárez & Olson 2021: 259 [‘ Buteogallus irpus , sp. nov. ’]).

Direct 14 C dating .—None.

Notes.—Very rare, known from a single cave deposit in west Cuba and the type locality in south-central Hispaniola ( Suárez & Olson 2021). B. irpus possesses a tarsometatarsus within the size range of the extinct continental species B. woodwardi (L. Miller, 1911) and B. hibbardi ( Campbell, 1979) , but relatively shorter and more robust, with reduced trochleae ( Suárez & Olson 2021). Although currently synonyms of the genus Buteogallus , both Harpyhaliaetus Lafresnaye and Heterospizias Sharpe were incorrectly cited in place of the former by Suárez & Olson (2021: 259) when listing characters 9 and 10 of ‘ Amplibuteo ’ described by Campbell (1979: 77). These characters of the distal tarsometatarsus (trochleae) are of specific value and their presence is variable in living and extinct species currently in Buteogallus , as partially described by Campbell (1979: 74). The extinct genus Titanohierax , described from the Bahamas ( Wetmore 1937) and currently unknown outside those islands ( Suárez & Olson 2008, Suárez 2020a), was erroneously considered to be more widely distributed in the West Indies (cf. Woods 1980, Olson & Hilgartner 1982, Morgan 1977a,b, 1994, Morgan et al. 2019). See Buteogallus borrasi . A re-evaluation of some fossils representing large members of Accipitridae from continental deposits in North America probably will shed more light on the taxonomy and distribution of T. gloveralleni .