Upper Pasture Cave, Little Exuma (Pleistocene of Bahamas)

Where: Bahamas (23.4° N, 75.6° W: paleocoordinates 23.4° N, 75.6° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

• The presence of extinct species, such as the gigantic hawk Titanohierax, combined with the heavy mineralization of the specimens from the Little Exuma deposits, probably indicates a Pleistocene age, but as with most Antillean cave deposits, there is little direct evidence for dating.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: cave; limestone

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by V. Knowles in 1937; reposited in the MCZ

Primary reference: A. Wetmore. 1937. Bird remains from cave deposits on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 80:427-441 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 194589: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 22.06.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Aves
 Charadriiformes - Scolopacidae
"Capella sp." = Gallinago
"Capella sp." = Gallinago Brisson 1760 snipe
 Passeriformes - Icteridae
Sturnella sp. Vieillot 1816 meadowlark
 Passeriformes - Corvidae
Corvus nasicus Temminck 1826 Cuban crow
 Passeriformes - Turdidae
"Mimocichla plumbea" = Turdus plumbeus
"Mimocichla plumbea" = Turdus plumbeus Linnaeus 1758 red-legged thrush
 Strigiformes - Strigidae
"Speotyto cunicularia" = Athene cunicularia
"Speotyto cunicularia" = Athene cunicularia Molina 1782 burrowing owl
 Strigiformes - Tytonidae
Tyto pollens n. sp.
Tyto pollens n. sp. Wetmore 1937 Bahama barn owl
 Columbiformes - Columbidae
"Columba squamosa" = Patagioenas squamosa, "Oreopeleia chrysia" = Geotrygon chrysia
"Columba squamosa" = Patagioenas squamosa Bonnaterre 1792 scaly-naped pigeon
"Oreopeleia chrysia" = Geotrygon chrysia Bonaparte 1855 Key West quail-dove
 Piciformes - Picidae
Colaptes sp., "Centurus superciliaris" = Melanerpes superciliaris
Colaptes sp. Vigors 1825 woodpecker
"Centurus superciliaris" = Melanerpes superciliaris Temminck 1827 West Indian woodpecker
 Accipitriformes - Accipitridae
"Calohierax quadratus n. gen. n. sp." = Buteo quadratus, Titanohierax gloveralleni n. gen. n. sp., Accipiter striatus
"Calohierax quadratus n. gen. n. sp." = Buteo quadratus Wetmore 1937 Bahama red-shouldered hawk
Titanohierax gloveralleni n. gen. n. sp. Wetmore 1937 Bahama eagle
Accipiter striatus Vieillot 1897 sharp-shinned hawk
ssp. velox