Tyto cravesae Suarez & Olson 2015
Creators: name: Suárez, William
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Aves
Strigiformes
Tytonidae
Tyto
Tyto cravesae

description: 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’.
description: Published as part of Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, pp. 247-248 in Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 142 (1) on pages 43-44, DOI: 10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a3, http://zenodo.org/record/13760932