Cuban flightless crane

Cuban flightless crane
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene
Tibiotarsus of Grus cubensis (top), with those of Propelargus edwardsi (middle) and Palaelodus gracilipes (bottom) for comparison, at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Gruiformes
Family:Gruidae
Genus:Grus
Species: G. cubensis
Binomial name
Grus cubensis
Fischer & Stephan, 1971

The Cuban flightless crane (Grus cubensis) is a large, extinct species of crane that was endemic to the island of Cuba in the Caribbean. The remains were found in Pleistocene deposits in Pinar del Rio. Probably derived from an early invasion of sandhill cranes from North America, it differed from that species by, as well as larger size, having a proportionately broader bill, stockier legs, and with reduced wings and pectoral girdle indicating that it may have been flightless.[1] Currently, the only extant Caribbean crane is the Cuban sandhill crane, Antigone canadensis nesiotes, an endangered subspecies of sandhill crane endemic to the country.

References

  1. ↑ Olson, Storrs L. (1978). "A paleontological perspective of West Indian birds and mammals" (PDF). In Gill, Frank. Zoogeography in the Caribbean: The 1975 Leidy Medal Symposium. Special Publication 13. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. pp. 99–117 [106]. ISBN 1422317854.


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