Puerto Rican quail-dove

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Puerto Rican quail-dove
Temporal range: Early Holocene
Geotrygon larva.jpg
Bones of the Puerto Rican quail-dove
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Geotrygon
Species:
G. larva
Binomial name
Geotrygon larva
(Wetmore, 1920)
Synonyms

Oreopela larva

The Puerto Rican quail-dove (Geotrygon larva) is an extinct species of dove from the genus of quail-doves Geotrygon . It is only known by subfossil material from the Holocene of Puerto Rico.

Contents

Taxonomy

According to Alexander Wetmore who described this species, it was related to the grey-fronted quail-dove (Geotrygon caniceps), which occurs on Cuba. [1] The tarsometatarsus of the Puerto Rican quail-dove is longer than in the grey-fronted quail-dove. Compared with the ruddy quail-dove (G. montana), which presently occurs on Puerto Rico, the tarsometatarsi are more slender.

Discovery

Remains of the Puerto Rican quail-dove were unearthed in the Cueva Clara and Cueva Catedral near Morovis, in the Cueva Toraño at Utuado, and in a kitchen midden near Mayagüez on Puerto Rico. The holotype, a tarsometatarsus, was discovered in July 1916 by zoologist Harold Elmer Anthony in the Cueva Clara.

Extinction

The large amount of unearthed material led to the assumption that the Puerto Rican quail-dove might have been a common bird before the initial arrival of humans to the island. Its extinction may have been due to deforestation.[ citation needed ]

References

  1. Alexander Wetmore: Five New Species of Birds from Cave Deposits In Porto Rico In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 1920:p 79–80

Further reading