Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds Author Suárez, William text Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 2022 2022-03-11 142 1 247 248 journal article 303162 10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a3 298e164c-f86e-4b3e-b3b3-2562d0ba6048 2513-9894 13760932 4C9216EC-E822-4CC7-A163-6E96CFB3078F 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’.