Buteo sanfelipensis, Suárez, 2020

Suárez, William, 2020, The fossil avifauna of the tar seeps Las Breas de San Felipe, Matanzas, Cuba, Zootaxa 4780 (1), pp. 1-53 : 28-29

† Buteo sanfelipensis sp. nov.

San Felipe’s Hawk; Gavilán de San Felipe

( Figure 10 : F–H; Table 7)

Holotype. Left tarsometatarsus without trochlea metatarsi IV, MNHNCu 75.4910. Collected in San Felipe I, on May 14, 2009, by William Suárez and Stephen Díaz Franco.

Diagnosis. Tarsometatarsus of moderate length, close to B. swainsoni Bonaparte, 1838 , or B. lagopus ( Pontoppidan, 1763) in morphology, but with shorter shaft and relatively reduced distal end.

Etymology. The specific name sanfelipensis refers to the tar seeps type locality name, Las Breas de San Felipe.

Description. Tarsometatarsus ( Fig. 10 A–C) referable to Buteo by characters described by Campbell (1979: 74), of medium size when compared with the equivalent element in other resident (including extirpated) species of the genus in the Greater Antilles ( Raffaele et al. 1998), where Buteo platypterus , B. ridgwayi ( Cory, 1883) , and B. lineatus are smaller species, but B. jamaicensis is larger. Similar to B. swainsoni or B. lagopus in size and general morphology, but more robust and short, with a relatively small distal end (slender and relatively thinner shaft in Buteo lineatus , B. nitidus [ Latham, 1790], B. plagiatus Schlegel, 1862 ; B. ridgwayi , B. albonotatus Kaup, 1847 ; B. swainsoni , B. lagopus , B. platypterus and B. jamaicensis ). Buteo brachyurus Vieillot, 1816 , has a much shorter and stouter tarsometatarsus and B. regalis Gray, 1844 , is slightly more shorter (proportionally), but it is much larger. Differs from the extinct species Buteo hoffstetteri Campbell, 1976 , from the late Pleistocene of Ecuador, by having again a much shorter and robust shaft (see Campbell 1976).

Comments. The only living species of Buteo endemic to the Greater Antilles is B. ridgwayi , from Hispaniola ( Raffaele et al. 1998, 2003; Keith et al. 2003; Latta et al. 2006), which is probably a derivative of B. lineatus ( Olson 2000) from Cuba ( Suárez & Olson 2003b). Buteo sanfelipensis sp. nov. seems to be its endemic equivalent in the Cuban archipelago. Of the remaining taxa known as residents in these islands, Buteo jamaicensis and B. platypterus , have been differentiated only at subspecific level, apparently by a more recent arrival to the Antillean Subregion. All Buteo species known from Cuba have been recorded at Las Breas de San Felipe (Table 10). Wetmore (1937) described the extinct hawk Calohierax quadratus from cave deposits in Great Exuma (= Little Exuma, Hecht 1955; Olson & Hilgartner 1982), Bahamas. This taxon is considered synonym of B. lineatus ( Olson 2000; Olson & Hilgartner 1982), or as the valid species B. quadratus ( Oswald & Steadman 2018) . The following qualitative characters, apart from its larger size, distinguish the tarsometatarsus of Buteo sanfelipensis sp. nov. from that of B. quadratus (see Wetmore 1937:428–430; figs. 1–3): shaft with crista plantaris medialis and crista plantaris lateralis less parallel (flaring) proximad (longer, thinner and more uniform in width, parallel along the entire preserved length of the shaft in B. quadratus ); metatarsal facet located higher (or proximad), and distance between its proximal end and the distal foramen, longer (lower and distance much shorter in B. quadratus ); distal foramen large (this can be variable; much smaller and more proximad in B. quadratus ). It is not impossible that remains of Buteo sanfelipensis sp. nov. can be found in Quaternary deposits of the Bahamas.

Figures

FIGURE 10. Buteogallus royi sp. nov.: Left tarsometatarsus (Holotype, MNHNCu 75.4909) in anterior (A), medial (B) and posterior (C) views; right ulna (MNHNCu 75.4737) in dorsal (D) and ventral (E) views. Buteo sanfelipensis sp. nov.: Left tarsometatarsus (Holotype, MNHNCu 75.4910) in anterior (F), medial (G) and posterior (H) views. Scale = 2 cm.