Bubo osvaldoi Arredondo & Olson, 1994

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 46-47

27. † Bubo osvaldoi Arredondo & Olson, 1994

Osvaldo’s Owl (Búho de Osvaldo) Bubo osvaldoi Arredondo & Olson, 1994 (part), Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 107: 438. Tyto riveroi : Salgado et al. 1992: 28, table 1.

History.— July 1991: holotype collected by O. Jiménez Vázquez and C. Morales in a cave deposit at Sierra de Galeras , western Cuba (see ‘Holotype’) . 4 October 1994: original description published ( Arredondo & Olson 1994). 9 December 2020: type series of B. osvaldoi revealed to be composite, and only specimens from the type locality represent this species (Suárez 2020b).

Holotype.—Right tarsometatarsus lacking proximal end above tubercle for tibialis anticus, MNHNCu 75.27, formerly MNHNCu-27.1 ( Arredondo & Olson 1994: 438, fig. 1: B [posterior], C [anterior], D [distal], Orihuela 2019: 63, fig. 5: A [anterior], B [posterior]). Collected on 2 July 1991 (no collecting date appears in the original description, but was not ‘1992’ as reported in Díaz-Franco 2004: 156 and Herrera-Uria et al. 2015: 113) by Osvaldo Jiménez Vázquez and Carlos Morales at ‘Pozo del Búho’, in the type locality (O. Jiménez Vázquez in litt. 2021).

Other material.— Femur: right lacking internal condyle and abraded about the trochanter, MNHNCu 75. 4908, formerly MNHNCu 27.3 ( Arredondo & Olson 1994: 38, fig. 2: B [anterior], Suárez 2020b, fig. 1: D [anterior]). Tarsometatarsus: shaft of left, MNHNCu 75.4907, formerly MNHNCu 27.2. For discussion of incorrect data concerning the type series, see ‘Notes’.

Type locality.—Cueva del Mono Fósil ( PMF), Sierra de Galeras, municipality of Viñales, Pinar del Río province, Cuba ( Arredondo & Olson 1994: 438; see Rivero & Arredondo 1991, Salgado et al. 1992, Arredondo & Rivero 1997). Fig. 8.

Distribution.—Cave deposit in west Cuba (see Appendix). Pinar del Río. Viñales: PMF ( Arredondo & Olson 1994: 438).

Direct 14 C dating .—None.

Notes.—Extremely rare, unknown away from the type locality. The type series of B. osvaldoi was a composite, including two fossil bones from eastern Cuba that belong to another large strigid, Ornimegalonyx ewingi Suárez , of about the same size (Suárez 2020b: 391). The catalogue numbers ‘MNHNCu P4607’ and ‘MNHNCu P4608’, assigned by Díaz-Franco (2004: 156), replicated by Herrera-Uria et al. (2015: 114), represent a lapsus calami (= the digit 9 was substituted by digit 6 on both specimens; S. Díaz-Franco & WS pers. obs.), maintained until today. Both numbers are in use for another taxon in the same collection ( Suárez & Olson 2003b: 73). In addition, incorrect data concerning the collection date and collector of the paratype femur (MNHNCu 75. 4908) was also republished ( Herrera-Uria et al. 2015: 114). The femur was secured at Cueva Alta, in the type locality, by other members (names unknown) of GEPAB, on a different (unknown) date to both tarsometatarsi (O. Jiménez Vázquez in litt. 2021).