| Tyto pollens Temporal range: Late Pleistocene | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Strigiformes |
| Family: | Tytonidae |
| Genus: | Tyto |
| Species: | †T. pollens |
| Binomial name | |
| †Tyto pollens | |
Tyto pollens is an extinct giant barn owl which lived in the Bahamas during the last Ice Age.
It is only known from the partial remains of three individuals which have been collected on the islands of Little Exuma (the site was misidentified as on Great Exuma in the original literature) and New Providence. [2] [3] Alexander Wetmore initially described the species from fossils of a single individual from Little Exuma site which are the holotype: a complete coracoid, a proximal end of the ulna, a major metacarpal lacking the proximal end and the complete femur. [1] The femur is 81.2mm in length. Both palaeontological sites are from before the arrival of humans (the Lucayans) to the islands. 18,000 years ago, the sea level was 120 metres lower than today and the Bahamas existed as at least five major islands, with a land mass over 10 times the modern size. Both dig sites would have been part of the same island. The fossil assembly of the period indicates that the Bahamas were much drier and more arid in this period, and instead of the pine forests covering the islands today, it was covered by an extensive savannah or prairie.
The species was sympatric with the American barn owl ( Tyto furcata ), which was much more common on the Bahamas at the time than it is today, and also had a radically different diet than today, having shifted from a diet of primarily brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) to primarily rats and house mice today. The New Providence site contained only two partial skeletons, but also copious amounts of owl pellets. These show that T. pollens had a diet which was largely based on the large rodent Geocapromys ingrahami , which at present only survives on a single small arid island, but which appears to have once been the only land mammal of the Bahamas and extremely common throughout most of the islands at the time. It is thought that the changing wetter climate allowed a new habitat of Bahamian pineyards (Caribbean pine forests) to spread over the islands, which drove this main prey of T. pollens to be extirpated from all but remnant arid habitat islands, and hunting by the Lucayans may have possibly also driven the species to extinction. The Little Exuma site is from a layer not far under a darker, more organic layer showing the arrival of the Lucayans, but it was never properly dated. The New Providence site is from some 20,000 years ago, give or take. T. pollens was closely related to T. ostologa from Hispaniola and T. noeli from Cuba. T. noeli was sympatric with an even larger species of barn owl, T. riveroi. [2] [3]
In a 1995 report Bruce G. Marcot, a forester from the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Portland, Oregon, claimed without evidence that it lived in the old-growth Bahamian pineyards of Andros Island in the Bahamas, [4] although the fossil assemblage indicates it was a species from the prairies and no fossils are known from Andros Island. [2] [3] Marcot claimed that the owl became recently extinct due to "early human settlers". He invented a new common name for the taxon: the Andros Island barn owl. He also claimed it was flightless and 1 meter tall, [4] although it was certainly not flightless nor so large. [3] One estimate posited the body mass of T. pollens as perhaps 9.1 kg (20 lb). [5]
Marcot also claimed T. pollens likely inspired the legend of the chickcharney, a mischievous goblin. According to legend, the Chickcharney has three-toed feet and can turn its head all the way around. [4]
Barn-owls are one of the two families of owls, the other being the true owls or typical owls, Strigidae. They are medium to large owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons. They also differ from the Strigidae in structural details relating in particular to the sternum and feet.
Andros Island is an archipelago within The Bahamas, the largest of the Bahamian Islands. Politically considered a single island, Andros in total has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. The land area of Andros consists of hundreds of small islets and cays connected by mangrove estuaries and tidal swamplands, together with three major islands: North Andros, Mangrove Cay, and South Andros. The three main islands are separated by bights, estuaries that trifurcate the island from east to west. It is 167 kilometres (104 mi) long by 64 km (40 mi) wide at the widest point.
Tyto is a genus of birds consisting of true barn owls, grass owls and masked owls that collectively make up all the species within the subfamily Tytoninae of the barn owl family, Tytonidae.
The giant Cuban owl or giant cursorial owl (Ornimegalonyx) is an extinct genus of giant owl that measured 1.1 metres in height. It is closely related to the many species of living owls of the genus Strix. It was a flightless or nearly flightless bird and it is believed to be the largest owl that ever existed. It lived on the island of Cuba.
The Bahama swallow is an endangered swallow endemic to The Bahamas.
The Jamaican slider, also known as the Cat Island slider, is a species of fresh water turtle in the family Emydidae. It is found in the Bahamas and Jamaica. As it is not currently found on any of the other surrounding islands in the region, it is assumed that the Jamaican slider was introduced from one of these countries to the other. Even though the popular theory was that these turtles originated from Jamaica, current geological evidence may suggest that they were in the Bahamas long before the native Taíno first went to the Bahamian islands. There is also evidence from archeological sites on San Salvador that the Taíno ate these turtles and transplanted them around the West Indies.
The Caribbean bioregion is a biogeographic region that includes the islands of the Caribbean Sea and nearby Atlantic islands, which share a fauna, flora and mycobiota distinct from surrounding bioregions.
Tyto robusta was a prehistoric barn-owl. It lived at what is now Monte Gargano in Italy, and was an island throughout much of the Neogene when sea levels were higher. The owl's remains date back to the Miocene-Pliocene boundary 5.5 to 5 million years ago. The fossil bones are about 60% as long again as a modern barn owl, giving a total length of about 50–65 cm for T. robusta. This owl provides an interesting case study of evolution and insular gigantism.
The stilt-owls (Grallistrix) is an extinct genus of true owls which contains four species, all of which lived on the Hawaiian Islands.
The chickcharney is a legendary creature in the folklore of Andros Island in the Bahama Islands. It is said to live in the forests, is furry or feathered, and about 3 feet tall, with an ugly appearance resembling an owl's. In common legend, if a traveler meets a chickcharney and treats it well, they will be rewarded with good luck, while treating a chickcharney badly will result in bad luck and hard times. Sightings have continued into the present. It is said that the birds make their nest by bringing several pine trees together and making their nest in the middle. Several of these tree formations have been sighted.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to The Bahamas:
The Bahamas National Trust is a non-profit organisation in the Bahamas that manages the country's 32 national parks. Its headquarters is located in New Providence in the Bay Street Business Centre, East Bay Street. Its office was formally located at The Retreat Gardens on Village Road. The Bahamas National Trust was created by an Act of Parliament in 1959, through the efforts of two groups of conservationists.
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
The Bahamian pineyards are a tropical and subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Titanohierax gloveralleni, also known as the Bahama eagle, is a large species of extinct hawk from the Late Quaternary of the Caribbean. Remains of the animal have been found on multiple islands in The Bahamas. The animal is known from a handful of bones found across multiple islands, including a tarsometatarsus, partial metacarpal, and nearly complete right ulna. The animal was described based on the former two by Alexander Wetmore in 1937, with all other currently referred material being assigned by Storrs Olson and colleagues in 1982.
The Puerto Rican barn owl is an extinct species of barn owl that inhabited the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. It is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the ashy-faced owl.
The Puerto Rican crow is an extinct crow species in the family Corvidae that was endemic to Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. Little is known about its habitat, but it possibly died out after the colonization of humans on these islands.
Rivero's barn owl is an extinct species of barn owl that was very large — bigger than any extant barn owl species, and possibly larger than any known owl alive today. It is thought to have been nearly as large as another extinct gigantic owl, Ornimegalonyx. Suárez and Olson demoted T. riveroi as a junior synonym of Tyto pollens in 2015.
Chilabothrus strigilatus, also known commonly as the Bahamian boa, is a species of snake in the family Boidae. The species is endemic to the Bahamas. There are five recognized subspecies.
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