Ara tricolor Bechstein, 1811

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 56-57

36. † Ara tricolor Bechstein, 1811

Cuban Macaw (Guacamayo Cubano)

Ara tricolor Bechstein, 1811 , in Latham, Allg. Ueber. 4(1): 64, pl. 1.

Le petit Ara d’Aubenton, 1779 , Planches Enl. 641.

L’Ara tricolor Levaillant, 1801: 13 .

Macrocercus aracanga : Vieillot, 1816: 258.

Macrocercus tricolor : Vieillot, 1816: 262.

Psittacus tricolor : Kuhl, 1820: 16.

S [ittace]. tricolor : Wagler, 1832: 669, 733.

Arara tricolor : Brehm, 1842: 3.

Sittace ? lichtensteini: Wagler, fide Bonaparte 1856.

Ara cubensis Wetherbee, 1985: 174 .

Type specimen.—Neontological material (extinct during second half of 19th century): adult mounted, MNHN CG 2000–726, with no date, precise locality, or collector (see Kirkconnell et al. 2020, pl. 58).

Referred material.— Skull: lacking zygomatic arches, right portion of frontal area, and most of bone around otic regions, AC- 7 ( Olson & Suárez 2008b: 287–288, fig. 1B: top [ventral], middle [dorsal], bottom [lateral]); rostrum, IGP/ACC unnumbered, at CZACC ( Arredondo 1984: 18). Carpometacarpus: proximal half of right, AMNH unnumbered ( Wetmore 1928: 4).

Distribution.—Cave and sinkhole deposits in west and central Cuba (see Appendix). Artemisa. Caimito: ACP ( Arredondo 1984: 18, Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1, 2002b: table 1). Cienfuegos. Palmira: CCM ( Wetmore 1928: 4). Villa Clara. Sagua La Grande: VCB ( Olson & Suárez 2008b: 287–288).

Direct 14 C dating .—None. For two indirect conventional dating from CCM (>30,000 to 25,000 ± 2,000 14 C yr BP), see Kulp et al. (1952: 419, table 2 [two samples: pine cones and wood]).

Notes.—Rare in Cuban Quaternary fossil localities with swampy palaeo-environmental indicators ( Olson & Suárez 2008b). One record from a cave deposit in Mayabeque province ( Arredondo & Arredondo 2002b: table 1) is erroneous (see section III). Fossils from Long Island, Bahamas, recently referred to Cuban Macaw by Steadman & Franklin (2020: table 1 [‘ Ara cf. tricolor ’]). For archaeological records see Jiménez & Orihuela (2021: 171–172). For a summary of its distribution in historical times, natural history, taxonomy, phylogenetic position and skin specimens in collections, see Wiley & Kirwan (2013), Hume (2017), Johansson et al. (2018), Provost et al. (2018) and Kirkconnell et al. (2020).