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
10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a3
2513-9894
4C9216EC-E822-4CC7-A163-6E96CFB3078F
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
.