Antigone cubensis ( Fischer & Stephan, 1971 ) Suárez, 2020

Suárez, William, 2020, The fossil avifauna of the tar seeps Las Breas de San Felipe, Matanzas, Cuba, Zootaxa 4780 (1), pp. 1-53 : 6-7

† Antigone cubensis ( Fischer & Stephan, 1971) comb. nov.

Cuban Flightless Crane; Grulla Cubana

( Figure 3 : A–J; Table 3)

Grus cubensis Fischer & Stephan, 1971 , Wissenschaftliche Zeitschr. Humboldt-Universität Berlin. Math Nat., Vol. 20, no. 4–5, p. 565.

Referred material. San Felipe I: Sternal half of right coracoid, MNHNCu 75.4760; distal half of left ulna, MNHN- Cu 75.4761; proximal fragment of right femur, MNHNCu 75.4762; right tibiotarsus without proximal end, MNHN- Cu 75.4765; distal half of right tibiotarsus, MNHNCu 75.4767; distal half of left tibiotarsus, MNHNCu 75.4763; distal third of left tibiotarsus, MNHNCu 75.4766; proximal ends of right tarsometatarsi, MNHNCu 75.4772-4773; proximal ends of left tarsometatarsi, MNHNCu 75.4774-4775; distal ends of left tarsometatarsi, MNHNCu 75.4764, 75.4768 -4769. San Felipe II: Distal ends of right tarsometatarsi, MNHNCu 75.4770-4771 .

Description. Fossils here referred to Antigone cubensis ( Fischer & Stephan, 1971) comb. nov., do not show significant differences in size ( Table 3) or qualitative characters when compared with specimens of the type series of that species.

Comments. This taxon was previously registered for asphalt deposits by Iturralde-Vinent et al. (2000). The osteology of this crane is well known since its original description ( Fischer 1968; Fischer & Stephan 1971). The abundant material recovered in the type locality—Cueva de Pío Domingo, Sumidero, Minas de Matahambre Municipality, Pinar del Río Province—was confused and apparently identified at an early stage (e.g., Castellanos 1968) as belonging to the genus Ciconia Brisson , in the family Ciconiidae (Gray) . It has been suggested that the Cuban species derives from an extinct lineage of large cranes ( Olson & Rasmussen 2001:291) known in deposits of North America since the Pliocene (Yorktown Formation), including Florida ( Emslie 1995, 1998), and related to the living Sarus Crane, Antigone antigone ( Linnaeus, 1758) . In congruence, I relocate here the Cuban Flightless Crane in the genus Antigone , represented in the Cuban archipelago today (Garrido & Kirckconell 2011) by the endemic subspecies of the Sandhill Crane, A. canadensis nesiotes ( Bangs & Zappey, 1905) .

A. cubensis (Breas de San Fe- A. cubensisa

ELEMENT AND CHARACTER

lipe) (Pío Domingo)

Figures

FIGURE 3. Antigone cubensis comb. nov.: Right tibiotarsus (MNHNCu 75.4765) in anterior (A), distal (B), medial (C) and posterior (D) views; right tarsometatarsus (MNHNCu 75.4772) in anterior (E) and proximal (F) views; right tarsometatarsus (MNHNCu 75.4770) in posterior (G), medial (H), anterior (I) and distal (J) views. Scale = 2 cm.