Grotte de l'Autel (Réunion)
| Grotte de l'Autel
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| Location: | Saint-Gilles , Reunion | |
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Geographic location: |
21 ° 2 '56 " S , 55 ° 16' 9" E | |
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| Discovery: | 1980 | |
| Particularities: | Fossil deposit | |
The Grotte de l'Autel (German: Altarhöhle) is a small cave on the Mascarene island of Réunion . It is located on the N1 route 2 km south of Saint-Gilles . In the south of the cave there is a somewhat lower hut altar in honor of Saint St. Expedit . The cavity is about 2.50 m long, 1.20 m wide and 1 m high at the highest point. The cave was discovered in 1980 by Roger Bour and François Moutou. In the same year the sediment was completely removed. The Grotte de l'Autel is a fossil deposit of international standing. The subfossil remains of extinct bird species were found here, including the Reunion owl ( Mascarenotus grucheti ), the Mascarene coot ( Fulica newtoni ), the Reunion night heron ( Nycticorax duboisi ), the Reunion hawk ( Falco duboisi ), the Reunion goose ( Alopochen kervazoi ), the Mascarene Parrot ( mascarinus mascarinus ) and the Réunionibis ( Threskiornis solitarius encouraged) to light.
literature
- Cecile Mourer-Chauvire, Roger Bour, Sonia Ribes, Francois Moutou: The Avifauna of Reunion Island (Mascarene Islands) at the Time of the Arrival of the First Europeans In: Storrs L. Olson: Avian Paleontology at the Close of the 20th Century: Proceedings of the 4th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution, Washington DC, 4-7 June 1996. 1996, pp. 2-4. (on-line)
- Julian Pender Hume: Contrasting taphofacies in ocean island settings: the fossil record of Mascarene vertebrates. In: JA Alcover, P. Bover (Ed.): Proceedings of the International Symposium “Insular Vertebrate Evolution: the Palaeontological Approach”. Monographs de la Societat d'Història Natural de les Balears. 12, 2005, pp. 129-144. (PDF, 5.5 MB, online)