Burhinus bistriatus ( Wagler, 1829 )

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 22

4. × Burhinus bistriatus ( Wagler, 1829)

Double-striped Thick-knee (Búcaro)

Charadrius bistriatus Wagler, 1829 , Isis von Oken 22, col. 648.

Burhinus : Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 33 [ Cuba].

Burhinus sp. : Acevedo-González & Arredondo 1982: table 1 [ Cuba].

Burhinus bistriatus : Suárez 2020a: 7 [ Cuba].

History.— November 1980: S. L. Olson identifies fossils of Burhinus at CZACC and OA ( Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 33). 1982: first published notice (5 August) as to presence in Cuban collections of fossil material referable to Burhinus ( Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 33) . Reported as ‘ Burhinus sp. ’ by Acevedo-González & Arredondo (1982: table 1) without indicating specimens or locality. May 1984: fossils in OA (see ‘Referred material’) recorded as ‘ Burhinus sp. ’ ( Arredondo 1984: 16–17). December 2000: first record from asphalt deposits at Las Breas de San Felipe ( Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000: table 2). 22 May 2020: some Cuban specimens identified as ‘ Burhinus bistriatus ’(Suárez 2020a: 7).

Referred material.— Humerus: right lacking distal end, MNHNCu 75.4783; distal end of right, MNHNCu 75.4792; distal ends of left, OA 2958, and right, OA 2959. Tibiotarsus: distal end of right, MNHNCu 75.4798. See Arredondo (1984: 16), Suárez (2020a: 7).

Distribution.—Cave and asphalt deposits in west Cuba (see Appendix). Artemisa. Caimito: ACP ( Arredondo 1984: 16 [‘ Burhinus sp. ’], Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1 [‘ Burhinus sp. ’], 2002b: table 1 [‘ Burhinus sp. ’]), ASA ( Suárez 2000b: table 1 [‘ Burhinus sp. ’], Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1 [‘ Burhinus sp. ’]). Mayabeque. San José de las Lajas: YCC ( Jiménez & Orihuela 2021: 169). Matanzas. Martí: MLB ( Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000: table 2 [‘ Burhinus sp. ’], Suárez 2020a: 7).

Direct 14 C dating .—None in Cuba. For dating of other bird species at MLB, 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). For dating of Burhinus material from the Bahamas, see Jones O’Day (2002).

Notes.—Common in Pleistocene deposits, considered a palaeo-ecological indicator of arid open habitat ( Feduccia 1980, Pregill & Olson 1981, Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000). Some material referred to Burhinus from Cuba is of a different size (Suárez 2020a; WS & S. L. Olson unpubl.), and perhaps involves the smaller B. nanus Brodkorb, 1959 , described from the Bahamas and considered a species, or a subspecies of B. bistriatus by some authors (see Olson & Hilgartner 1982: 33, Oswald & Steadman 2018: 363). B. bistriatus still inhabits the Greater Antilles, with the endemic B. b. dominicensis ( Cory, 1883) resident on Hispaniola (AOU 1998, Raffaele et al. 1998, 2003, Keith et al. 2003, Latta et al. 2006).