Cathartes emsliei Suárez & Olson, 2020

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 31-32

13. † Cathartes emsliei Suárez & Olson, 2020

Emslie’s Vulture ( Aura de Emslie )

Cathartes emsliei Suárez & Olson, 2020b , Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 140: 335.

Cathartes aura : Jiménez Vázquez & Valdés Ruiz 1995: 62.

Cathartes ? sp.: Suárez 2000a: 120.

Cathartes sp. : Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1.

History.— 1997: first identified specimen (tarsometatarsus) of the type series collected by WS in a cave deposit in west Cuba ( Suárez & Olson 2020b: 335). February 2000: comment published, clarifying that Turkey Vulture C. aura ( Linnaeus, 1758) is unknown in Cuba from Pleistocene / Early Holocene deposits, where fossils represent another taxon ( Suárez 2000a: 120). May 2001: the presence of two additional ‘undescribed, smaller species’ of vultures from Cuba is reported (Suárez 2001b: 110). 2020: first record from asphalt deposits (22 May) at Las Breas de San Felipe, west Cuba (Suárez 2020a: 14), and the original description (21 September) of C. emsliei is published ( Suárez & Olson 2020b).

Holotype.—Proximal half of left tarsometatarsus, MNHNCu 75.4752 ( Suárez & Olson 2020b: 336, fig. 3: B [anterior], E [posterior]). Collected in San Felipe I on 27 December 2002 by WS and Stephen Díaz Franco (see Suárez 2020a: 3).

Other material.— Scapula: right, MNHNCu 75.692, formerly P-692 (fig. 1B [ventral]). Coracoid: fragmentary left, MNHNCu 75.4755, formerly P-691 (fig. 1D [dorsal]). Tibiotarsus: right without proximal end, MNHNCu 75.4750 (fig. 2A [anterior]); distal right, MNHNCu 75.4754, MNHNCu 75.4749 (fig. 2C [anterior]); distal left, MNHNCu 75.4748. Tarsometatarsus: proximal right, MNHNCu 75.4745, MNHNCu 75.4753, WS 778—immature (fig. 3: A [anterior], D [posterior]); distal half of right, MNHNCu 75.4746 (fig. 3: H [anterior], J [posterior]); proximal half of left, MNHNCu 75.4747; distal half of left, MNHNCu 75.4751 (fig. 3: G [anterior], I [posterior]). Cited material and figures are from Suárez & Olson (2020b).

Type locality.—Las Breas de San Felipe ( MLB), c. 5.5 km west of the town of Martí, San Felipe Valley, municipality of Martí, Matanzas province, Cuba ( Suárez & Olson 2020b: 338; for description of the deposit, see Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000). Fig. 5.

Distribution.—Cave, asphalt and sinkhole deposits in west and central Cuba (see Appendix). Artemisa. Caimito: ACP (WS unpubl.), ASA ( Suárez 2004a: 124 [‘a small species of vulture’], Suárez & Olson 2020b: 338). Mayabeque. San José de las Lajas: YCI ( Jiménez Vázquez & Valdés Ruiz 1995: 62 [‘ Cathartes aura ’], Rojas Consuegra et al. 2012: 10 [‘ Cathartes sp. ’, after being re-identified by WS (= ‘ C. aura ’ of Jiménez Vázquez & Valdés Ruiz 1995)], Suárez & Olson 2020b: 335). Matanzas. Martí: MLB = type locality (Suárez 2020a: 14 [‘ Cathartes sp. ’], Suárez & Olson 2020b: 336 [‘ Cathartes emsliei sp. nov. ’]). Villa Clara. Corralillo: VSM (WS unpubl.).

Direct 14 C dating .—None. For dating of other bird species at the type locality, see Antigone cubensis , Gymnogyps varonai and Ornimegalonyx oteroi , and of associated extinct mammals ( Parocnus browni = 11,880 ± 420 to 4,960 ± 280 years 14 C BP), see Jull et al. (2004) and Steadman et al. (2005).

Notes.—Uncommon in Quaternary deposits on the main island. Postcranial elements smaller compared to specimens of living C. aura (Suárez 2001b, 2004a, Suárez & Olson 2020b). Scarce material of C. emsliei from cave deposits in west Cuba, and from sinkhole deposits in Villa Clara province, central Cuba, are present at CZACC and AC, respectively (WS unpubl.). Emslie’s Vulture is comparable in size to the extinct, tiny Wingegyps cartellei Alvarenga & Olson, 2004 , from the Pleistocene of Brazil (see Nascimento & Silveira 2020: 502–503), but the latter is similar to Gymnogyps condors rather than to Cathartes ( Alvarenga & Olson 2004: 3) .