A new species of extinct scops owl (Aves: Strigiformes: Strigidae: Otus) from São Miguel Island (Azores Archipelago, North Atlantic Ocean)
Author
Rando, Juan Carlos
Author
Alcover, Josep Antoni
Author
Olson, Storrs L.
Author
Pieper, Harald
text
Zootaxa
2013
3647
2
343
357
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3647.2.6
f1421451-9a87-4732-85ee-8c6c468fcec6
1175-5326
223879
F7B057B8-EECF-4A50-B58D-74BD85B3F1E5
Genus
Otus
Pennant
Twenty-five complete or nearly complete isolated bones, an incomplete associated skeleton, and fragments of five more bones of a small species of
Strigiformes
were collected. These bones are referred to the genus
Otus
.
The
premaxilla
is laterally compressed, whereas it is broader in other Palearctic genera of
Strigiformes
with species of similar size (such as
Athene
and
Aegolius
), and the palatine is characteristically deep and narrow. The
pelvis
has inconspicuous
cristae iliosynsacralis
in
Otus
, whereas in
Athene
they are prominent. The shape of the
alae praeacetabularis ilii
is different in
Otus
and
Athene
, with a deeper notch in the latter. The generic anatomical differences among the remaining postcranial bones of
Otus
and the other Palearctic genera of
Strigiformes
have been described, bone by bone, in Rando
et al.
(2012a), and they apply here. Additionally, the discovery of associated material demonstrates that all the bones belong to a single new species of
Otus
.