32. † Milvago diazfrancoi Suárez, 2020

Díaz Franco’s Caracara (Caraira de Díaz Franco)

Milvago diazfrancoi Suárez, 2020a, Zootaxa 4780: 36.

Holotype.—Left tarsometatarsus lacking trochleae II and IV, MNHNCu 75.4610 (Suárez 2020a: 36, fig. 14: A [anterior], B [posterior]). Collected on 14 May 2009 by WS and Stephen Díaz Franco in San Felipe I, at the type locality (Suárez 2020a: 36).

Other material.— Tibiotarsus: distal third of left, MNHNCu 75.7021 (fig. 14: F [distal], G [anterior]). Tarsometatarsus: distal half of right, MNHNCu 75.7022; distal end of right, MNHNCu 75.4826; proximal half of right, MNHNCu 75.4825 (fig. 14: C [anterior]); distal half of left, MNHNCu 75.7023 (fig. 14: D [posterior], E [anterior]); distal end of left, MNHNCu 75.4824. Cited material and figures are from Suárez (2020a).

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 2020a; for description of locality see Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000). Fig. 5 .

Distribution.—Asphalt deposits in west Cuba (see Appendix). Matanzas. Martí: MLB (Suárez 2020a).

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. M. diazfrancoi is about the size of M. alexandri [= Milvago wetmorei Arredondo 1982: 36 (lapsus calami)] Olson, 1976, from Haiti, with a slenderer tarsometatarsus in the former, among other distinguishing characters (Suárez 2020a: 36; see Olson 1976: fig. 1). Both taxa appear related to the continental modern-day Yellow-headed Caracara M. chimachima (Olson 1976: 359, Suárez 2020a: 36–37), which is present in the fossil record of Florida (Emslie 1998: 44–46) .