Mascarene Owls

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mauritius owl ( Otus sauzieri )

The Mascarene Owls are a group of three extinct species of owl that were endemic to the Mascarene Islands . Until 2018 they were considered an independent genus Mascarenotus , which was introduced in 1994 by Cécile Mourer-Chauviré , Roger Bour , François Moutou and Sonia Ribes . However , a study published in 2018 by Julian P. Hume and his colleagues showed that the Mascarene Owls were closely related to the scops owls ( otus ) of the western Indian Ocean , including theOriental scops owl ( Otus sunia ). Subfossil bone material also shows similarities with the also extinct Hawaiian genus Grallistrix .

The Mauritius owl ( Otus sauzieri , synonym: Mascarenotus sauzieri ) was first scientifically described in 1893 as Strix sauzieri by Edward Newton and Hans Friedrich Gadow on the basis of bones that Théodore Sauzier discovered in 1889 in the Mare aux Songes fossil site in Mauritius . The Art Scops commersoni , which was described by Émile Oustalet in 1896 on the basis of a drawing by Paul Philippe Sanguin de Jossigny from 1770, is considered a synonym for Otus sauzieri , as is the Art Strix newtoni , performed in Rothschild's work Extinct Birds in 1907 , which is based on the base of two shorter tarsometatarsus bones. In 1953, Masauji Hachisuka recombined this taxon as Strix sauzieri as Tyto newtoni and Tyto sauzieri . Tyto newtoni was probably the smaller male of the Mauritius owl, while Newton's and Gadow's type specimen of Tyto sauzieri represented the larger female. With a size of 42 centimeters, the Mauritius owl was the largest endemic predator in Mauritius. In the middle of the 19th century it was considered extinct. The Réunion owl ( Otus grucheti , synonym: Mascarenotus grucheti ) was described in 1994 on the basis of subfossil bones that Bertrand Kervazo unearthed in 1974 in the Grotto des Premiers Français near Saint-Paul on Réunion . Further remains were found in 1980 in the Grotte de l'Autel near Saint-Gilles and between 1990 and 1992 in the Marais de l'Ermitage fossil site. The Rodrigues owl ( Otus murivorus , synonym: Mascarenotus murivorus ) was first described in 1873 by Alphonse Milne-Edwards as Strix murivora . In 1907 Walter Rothschild listed the taxon Bubo (?) Leguati , which is considered a synonym for this species. Probably the last historical record of the Rodrigues owl comes from Julien Tafforet in 1726.

The legs of these owls show remarkable parallels in shape and length with those of the Hawaiian genus Grallistrix . Otus grucheti is similar in size to Grallistrix erdmani from the island of Maui and Grallistrix orion from Oahu . These similarities could be explained by the convergent evolution of these owls, which lived on originally mammal-free islands and presumably ate small birds.

literature

  • Cécile Mourer-Chauviré, Roger Bour, François Moutou & Sonia Ribes (1994): Mascarenotus nov. gen. (Aves, Strigiformes), genre endémique éteint des Mascareignes et M. grucheti n. sp., espèce éteinte de La Réunion . CR Acad. Sci. Paris sér. II 318: 1699-1706.
  • Edward Newton & Hans Friedrich Gadow (1893): On additional bones of the Dodo and other extinct birds of Mauritius obtained by Mr. Théodore Sauzier . Trans. Zool. Soc. 13: 281-302
  • Walter Rothschild (1907): Extinct Birds
  • Émile Oustalet (1896): Notice sur la faune ornithologique ancienne et modern des iles Mascareignes et en particulier de l'ile Maurice: d'apres des documents inedits. From Annales des sciences naturelles, 8e ser., III, 1–128.
  • Masauji Hachisuka (1953): The dodo and kindred birds, or, The extinct birds of the Mascarene Islands. London: HF & G. Witherby, 250 pp.
  • Anthony Cheke & Julian Pender Hume: Lost Land of the Dodo . T. & AD Poyser, 2008, ISBN 0-7136-6544-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Antoine Louchart, Fabiola Bastian, Marilia Baptista, Perle Guarino ‐ Vignon, Julian P. Hume, Cécile Jacot ‐ des ‐ Combes, Cécile Mourer ‐ Chauviré, Catherine Hänni and Morgane Ollivier Ancient DNA reveals the origins, colonization histories, and evolutionary pathways of two recently extinct species of giant scops owl from Mauritius and Rodrigues Islands (Mascarene Islands, south ‐ western Indian Ocean). Journal of Biogeography, Volume 45, Issue 12, December 2018, pp. 2678–2689. doi : 10.1111 / jbi.13450
  2. ↑ Anaïs Duhamel, Julian P. Hume, Pauline Guenser, Céline Salaviale & Antoine Louchart: Cranial evolution in the extinct Rodrigues Island owl Otus murivorus (Strigidae), associated with unexpected ecological adaptations. Scientific Reports 10, Article number: 14019, 2020. doi : 10.1038 / s41598-020-69868-1

Web links

Commons : Mascarenotus  - collection of images, videos and audio files