Reunion owl

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Reunion owl
Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Owls (Strigiformes)
Family : Real owls (Strigidae)
Subfamily : Striginae
Genre : Scops Owls ( Otus )
Type : Reunion owl
Scientific name
Otus grucheti
( Mourer-Chauviré , Bour , Moutou & Ribes , 1994)

The Réunion owl ( Otus grucheti , synonym: Mascarenotus grucheti ) is an extinct species of the scops owl ( Otus ) that was endemic to the Mascarenes island of Réunion . Until 2018 it was in the independent genus Mascarenotus and is only known from subfossil material from the Holocene . The art epithet honors Harry Gruchet, a curator from the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle de La Réunion in Saint-Denis .

features

The Réunion owl reached roughly the size of the Mauritius owl ( Mascarenotus sauzieri ). However, their wing elements were slightly reduced and their legs were longer.

habitat

The Reunion owl was likely a secret inhabitant of dense and remote forests.

History of Discovery and Extinction

In 1974 Bertrand Kervazo unearthed the holotype , a right tarsometatarsus , in the Grotto des Premiers Français near Saint-Paul . In 1980, a humerus and a tibiotarsus were discovered in the Grotte de l'Autel near Saint-Gilles . Between 1990 and 1992, three tarsometatarsi, a femur and an incomplete os quadratum were found in the Marais de l'Ermitage fossil site. It is very likely that the Reunion owl became extinct during the 18th century as a result of massive deforestation .

literature

  • Michael P. Walters & Julian Pender Hume: Extinct Birds , Poyser Monographes A & C Black, 2012. ISBN 978-140-815-725-1 , pp. 194-195
  • Anthony S. Cheke, Julian Hume: Lost Land of the Dodo. An Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion & Rodrigues. T & AD Poyser, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7136-6544-4 .
  • Cécile Mourier-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.

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