Nesotrochis

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Nesotrochis
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene to Holocene
Nesotrochis debooyi.jpg
leg and foot bones of Nesotrochis debooyi
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Genus: †Nesotrochis
Wetmore, 1918
Species
  • †N. debooyi Wetmore, 1918
  • †N. steganinos Olson, 1974
  • †N. picapicensis Fischer & Stephan, 1971

Nesotrochis is a genus of extinct flightless birds, formerly native to the islands of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean.[1] Its species are considered examples of insular gigantism.[1] It contains 3 species known from subfossil remains of Late Pleistocene and Holocene age found in cave deposits, and consequently they have been collectively referred to as the West Indian cave rails. Previously considered rails in the family Rallidae, In 2021, DNA analysis of a complete mitochondrial genome of N. steganinos indicated that they were not rails but an independent lineage of gruiform birds, with their closest relatives being the family Sarothruridae native to Africa, Madagascar, New Guinea and Wallacea, and the extinct adzebills of New Zealand.[2]

  • Antillean cave rail, Nesotrochis debooyi (Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, West Indies) - may have survived until historic times
  • , Nesotrochis steganinos (Haiti, West Indies) - prehistoric
  • , Nesotrochis picapicensis (Cuba, West Indies) - prehistoric

References[]

  1. ^ a b Livezey, Bradley C. (22 October 1997). "A phylogenetic analysis of the Gruiformes (Aves) based on morphological characters, with an emphasis on the rails (Rallidae)". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 353 (1378): 2077–2151. doi:10.1098/rstb.1998.0353. PMC 1692427.
  2. ^ Oswald, Jessica A.; Terrill, Ryan S.; Stucky, Brian J.; LeFebvre, Michelle J.; Steadman, David W.; Guralnick, Robert P.; Allen, Julie M. (March 2021). "Ancient DNA from the extinct Haitian cave-rail ( Nesotrochis steganinos ) suggests a biogeographic connection between the Caribbean and Old World". Biology Letters. 17 (3): rsbl.2020.0760, 20200760. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2020.0760. ISSN 1744-957X.


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