Tadarida brasiliensis (I. Geoffroy, 1824)

Orihuela, Johanset, Orozco, Leonel Pérez, Álvarez Licourt, Jorge L., Viera Muñoz, Ricardo A. & Barani, Candido Santana, 2020, Late Holocene land vertebrate fauna from Cueva de los Nesofontes, Western Cuba: Stratigraphy, chronology, diversity, and paleoecology, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 57) 23 (3), pp. 1-46 : 14-15

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vide insight into the paleoenvironments and taphonomy, as are interpreted in the Discussion section.

Taxon Identification and Fauna Sample

A total of 3932 specimens were collected from the assemblage (test Pit D), of which 2326 (59.2 %) were identifiable vertebrate specimens (NISP) and 324 were unidentifiable fragments. The NISP increased to 2870 if invertebrates were included ( Table 3). Another 738 specimens were collected from two other surface deposits within the cave near the deposit ( Figure 2 ). The total, including invertebrates, represented 83 taxa (NTAXA).

Of the total NTAXA (n = 83), 71 taxa represented vertebrates, yielding a count of 602 minimum number of identified individuals (MNI) ( Table 3). This fauna was mostly composed of birds (33 species) and mammals (~32 species), 39.8%, and 38.6% of the total NTAXA, respectively. Of the birds, the woodpeckers (at least 3 taxa or 9%), the strigids (at least 3), pigeons (at least 3), and passerines (7 or 21%), were the most abundant.

Within the mammals, the bats and eulipotyphlans were the most abundant, but the rodents and bats were the most diverse ( Table 3). NTAXA vertebrate diversity increases to 77 if other species records from the surface collections and other excavated deposits within the cave are added. These include, for instance, the bats Desmodus rotundus , Chilonatalus macer , and Lasiurus insularis (Orihuela, 2010; Orihuela et al., 2020a, 2020b).

The gastropod fauna was diverse with at least nine species preliminarily recorded. Further identification of their remains will likely increase the overall NTAXA count. The gastropods, amphibians, and reptiles will not be discussed in detail here. These groups of organisms have been poorly studied in Cuban Quaternary deposits, and thus our knowledge of them in the recent past is very limited. In the case of the amphibians and reptiles, this has been largely dictated by a lack of modern comparative osteological material in the Cuban zoological collections (Aranda, 2019). However, those that we could identify ( Table 3) will be briefly commented on in the Discussion, and altogether add to the knowledge of the island’s past herpetofauna.

Systematic Palaeontology: Noteworthy or Extralimital Record Fauna

Figures

FIGURE 2. Cueva de los Nesofontes indicating geological, stratigraphic, and deposition features. 1, a gallery with main doline or sinkhole indicating areas of fauna collection. Smaller A-D letters pertain to the upper deposits/profiles described here. E-F are two test pits conducted on the lower level. G is the source location for the 14C-dated domestic dog mentioned in the text. 2, the upper area where the main test pits described are located: A is the test pit from 1985, B-C was dug between April 1995 and December 2003. The cross-section a-a’ is the approximate source for the stratigraphic profiles illustrated in the following figures. Angles of inclination and heights above the main level are indicated. 3, cross-section (indicated b-b’ on 1). Arrows indicate areas of sediment and raptor-derived pellet deposits and roost.