31. † Milvago carbo Suárez & Olson, 2003

Cuban Caracara (Caraira Cubana)

Milvago carbo Suárez & Olson, 2003c, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 116: 302.

Holotype.—Near-complete right tarsometatarsus, MNHNCu 75.4569, formerly P4569 (Suárez & Olson 2003c: 302, fig. 1: A [anterior], B [medial], C [posterior]; see Herrera-Uria et al. 2015: 114–115, not ‘P456’ [lapsus calami] as appears in Díaz-Franco 2004: 157). Collected in San Felipe II during expeditions conducted in 1998 by the Depto. de Geología y Paleontología, MNHNCu [= Stephen Díaz Franco, Manuel Iturralde Vinent and Reinaldo Rojas Consuegra. Not ‘W. Suárez, and S. Díaz-Franco’ as indicated by Herrera-Uria et al. 2015: 115. See Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000: 301] (Suárez & Olson 2003c: 302).

Other material.— Notarium: fragmentary, MNHNCu 75.4567. Tibiotarsus: distal ends of left, MNHNCu 75.4568, MNHNCu 75.4570–4571. Tarsometatarsus: proximal half of left without part of inner and outer calcaneal ridges, MNHNCu 75.4572; shaft of left, MNHNCu 75.4573; proximal end of right, MNHNCu 75.4574; distal halves of right, MNHNCu 75.4575–4576 (latter with abrasion); distal ends of left, MNHNCu 75.4577–4578. See Suárez & Olson (2003c: 303), Díaz-Franco (2004: 157), Herrera-Uria et al. (2015: 115).

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 2003c: 302–303; for description of this deposit see Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000). Fig. 5.

Distribution.—Asphalt deposits in west Cuba (see Appendix). Matanzas. Martí: MLB (Suárez & Olson 2003c: 302–303, Suárez 2020a: 35–36).

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.—Very rare, known only from tar seeps in west Cuba. The largest representative of the genus Milvago, living or extinct (Suárez & Olson 2003c, Suárez 2020a). The smaller taxon recorded as Milvago sp. (see below) by Suárez & Arredondo (1997: 101) is not a synonym of the much larger M. carbo (contra Kirkconnell et al. 2020: table 4).