Gymnogyps varonai (Arredondo, 1972)

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 27-29

11. † Gymnogyps varonai (Arredondo, 1972)

Cuban Condor (Cóndor Cubano)

Antillovultur varonai Arredondo, 1972c , Mem. Soc. Cienc. Nat . La Salle 31: 310 [for 1971].

Antillovultur varonai : Arredondo 1972c: 310.

Gymnogyps varonai : Emslie 1988: 213.

Antillovultur varoni : Arredondo 1996: 1 (lapsus calami).

Gymnogyps sp. : Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100.

Antillobultor varonai : Pradas 1998: 7 (lapsus calami).

Gymnogyps varonae : Vergara 2003: 454, 456 (lapsus calami).

Gymnnogyps varonai : Suárez 2004c: 15 (lapsus calami).

History.— 7 September 1959: Arredondo and members of GEC collect the type series in a cave deposit in west Cuba ( Arredondo 1972c: 209). 5 February 1971: first news published of ‘un Buitre cubano extinguido…aparentemente de la talla del actual Cóndor de los Andes’ [‘an extinct Cuban vulture...apparently about the size of the living Andean Condor’] ( Arredondo 1971: 96). 1972: original description (after March 1972, not ‘1971’, see ‘Notes’) of ‘ Antillovultur ’ varonai published ( Arredondo 1972c). May 1978: S. L. Olson comments on similarities between the extinct genus Antillovultur and living Gymnogyps ( Olson 1978: 103– 104) . June 1988: Cuban Condor treated as Gymnogyps varonai ( Emslie 1988: 222) . 1 February 2000: cranial and postcranial elements from cave, asphalt and sinkhole deposits described, further evidencing it is a Gymnogyps ( Suárez 2000a). 23 April 2003: redescription of G. varonai published after first direct comparison with living and extinct North American congenerics ( Suárez & Emslie 2003). 22 May 2020: direct 14 C dating published, on material from asphalt deposits (Suárez 2020a: table 2).

Holotype. —Proximal fragmentary left tarsometatarsus, DPUH 1254 ( Arredondo 1972c, figs. 1—not ‘MPUH’ (lapsus calami) as in the figure legend—[anterior], 2*A [anterior], 3*D [anterior], 1976, figs. 1: A [anterior], B [posterior], 2*C [anterior], Suárez 2000a, fig. 1: ‘A’ = left [anterior], ‘B’ = right [posterior]). Collected 7 September 1959 by Oscar Arredondo [with Manuel Acevedo-González, Juan N. Otero and Walter M. Acevedo-González (see Morejón 1974: 85)], in ‘Salón del Pozo’, at the type locality ( Arredondo 1972c: 309, 311).

Other material.— Vertebra: incomplete ‘7th’ cervical, OA 848. Humerus: left lacking proximal end, GEC P-80, formerly GEC unnumbered, at CZACC ( Arredondo 1972c: figs. 4 [palmar], 5*C: left [anconal], right [dorsal], 1976, fig. 1C [palmar]). Tarsometatarsus: trochlea IV of left, OA 847 ( Arredondo 1972c: fig. 3*D [anterior], 1976: fig. 2*C [anterior]). See Arredondo (1972c: 311).

Type locality.— Cueva de Paredones ( ACP), c. 3 km south-west of Ceiba del Agua, municipality of Caimito [formerly San Antonio de los Baños], Artemisa [formerly La Habana] province, Cuba ( Arredondo 1972c: 311). Fig. 4 .

Distribution.—Cave, asphalt and sinkhole deposits over Cuba’s main island (see Appendix). Pinar del Río. Minas de Matahambre: PPD ( Suárez 2000a: 113). Artemisa. Caimito: ACP = type locality ( Arredondo 1971: 96 [see ‘History’], 1972a: table 1 [‘Especie de Buitre ligeramente mayor que un Cóndor’], 1972c: 310 [‘ Antillovultur varonai n. gen., n. sp. ’], 1975: 151 [‘ Antillovultur varonai ’], Suárez & Arredondo 1997: 100 [‘ Gymnogyps sp. ’], Suárez 2000a: 113, fig. 2* = tarsometatarsus: A [anterior], B [posterior], Suárez & Emslie 2003: 30, fig. 4 = tarsometatarsi: middle [anterior], right [anterior], Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1 [‘ Antillovultur varonai ’], 2002b: table 1 [‘ Antillovultur varonai ’]), ASA ( Suárez 2000a: 112–113, 2000b: 68 [‘ Gymnogyps ’], 2004a: 124, Arredondo & Arredondo 2002a: table 1 [‘ Antillovultur varonai ’]). Mayabeque. Quivicán: YIN ( Suárez 2000a: 113). Matanzas. Martí: MLB ( Suárez 2000a: 112, fig. 4* = rostrum: A [dorsal], B [lateral], Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000: table 2, Suárez & Emslie 2003: 30, fig. 2 = rostrum: middle [lateral], Suárez 2020a, fig. 7: A = humerus [anconal], B = coracoid [ventral], C = carpometacarpus [ventral], D = tibiotarsus [anterior], E = tibiotarsus [distal], F–J = tarsometatarsus: F [anterior], G [proximal], H [posterior], I [anterior], J [distal]). Villa Clara. Corralillo: VSM ( Pradas 1998: 7 [‘ Antillobultor [sic] varonai ’], Suárez 2000a: 112, fig. 3* = skull: A [dorsal], B [lateral], C [posterior], Suárez & Emslie 2003: 30, figs. 1 = skull: top row, middle [dorsal], bottom row, middle [posterior], 3 = tibiotarsus: left [anterior], Arredondo Antúnez & Villavicencio Finalet 2006: 163, tables I– II). Holguín. Mayarí: OCS ( Arredondo 1984: 8 [‘ Antillovultur varonai ’], 1996: 1 [‘ Antillovultur varoni [sic]’. This record has been cited with reservations, see Suárez 2000a, fig. 5]).

Direct 14 C dating .—Late Pleistocene ( MLB):>41,000 14 C yr BP (Suárez 2020a: table 2, tibiotarsus).

Notes.—The commonest cathartid in Cuban Late Pleistocene / Early Holocene deposits, from where it is known by most of its skeletal elements ( Suárez 2000a, 2020 a, Suárez & Emslie 2003). Approximately the same size (not ‘bigger’, as incorrectly indicated by Gutiérrez Domech 2010: 12, Gutiérrez Domech et al. 2018: 42) as Andean Condor Vultur gryphus Linnaeus, 1758 , and larger than California Condor Gymnogyps californianus (see Arredondo 1971: 96, 1972c: 311, 1976: 172, 1984: 8). Comments on the taxonomic status of Cuban Condor by Navarro (2020: 51) are outdated, overlooking the taxon’s redescription ( Suárez & Emslie 2003). The original description of Antillovultur (= Gymnogyps ) varonai was not published in September–December 1971, as appears on Mem. Soc. Cienc. Nat . La Salle 31(90). Some evidence indicates it was printed after the description (March 1972) of the extinct barn owl Tyto noeli Arredondo , and probably before that of ‘ T. riveroi ’ Arredondo (December 1972 [but see Arredondo 1975: 159, 189]). On 5 February 1971, Arredondo (1971: 95–96) commented about his discoveries and progress with investigations concerning the two large Tyto species and the condor. Of the barn owls, he wrote that ‘aunque están descritas, no han sido aún dadas a conocer como especies nuevas’ [‘although they are described, they have not yet been released as new species’], and concerning the condor, ‘aún no está descrita, pero en un futuro se dará a conocer’[‘it is not yet described, but in the future it will be released’], indicating that both Tyto manuscripts were finished (one being in press, see Arredondo 1970b: 151) and he expected them to be published before that of the condor, which was still not finished. This accords with the original description of T. noeli (supposedly published 3–4 months after the condor paper), wherein the condor is listed in a table without a scientific name ( Arredondo 1972a: table 1). This seems logical, as Arredondo had no means of easily modifying manuscripts in press outside Cuba (in this case Venezuela) (O. Arredondo pers. comm.). But, the barn owl paper, supposedly published a year after ‘ A ’. varonai , is cited in the condor’s original description as a source that had previously mentioned the presence of this scavenger in Cuba, with a precise indication of page numbers ( Arredondo 1972c: 309, 322), year (= 1972), month (= March), and even the scientific name of the tytonid ( Arredondo 1972c: 319, table 1). Or, in other words, a publication from 1972, is cited in all its details in a paper supposedly published the previous year, 1971. More precise information exists in an article on the history of the discovery of Cuban Condor and other fossil raptors by Arredondo, published by Morejón (1974: 85): ‘En septiembre de 1959 un grupo de investigadores, entre los cuales se encontraban...Manuel Acevedo-González, Juan N. Otero y Walter M. Acevedo-González, todos espeleólogos; y el paleontólogo Arredondo, encontraron en…la Cueva de Paredones...huesos de un ave que muy posteriormente, en 1972, pudieron ser clasificados como pertenecientes a una especie de buitre mayor que el actual cóndor de California. Se trata de un nuevo género y una nueva especie, y recibió la denominación de “ Antillovultur varonai ”...’ [‘In September 1959, a group of researchers, among them...Manuel Acevedo-González, Juan N. Otero and Walter M. Acevedo-González, all speleologists, and the palaeontologist Arredondo, found in...Cueva de Paredones...bones of a bird that much later, in 1972, was finally classified as belonging to a species of vulture larger than the living California Condor. It is a new genus and a new species, and received the name of “ Antillovultur varonai ”...’]. Considering the evidence from these papers, the publication date of the condor cannot be in the last quarter of 1971, but sometime after March 1972. Delays, even of a year, in the printing of some issues of Mem. Soc. Cienc. Nat . La Salle were common at the time (F. Rojas in litt. 2021). As the precise date is unknown, according to the ICZN (1999, Art. 21.3 and 21.4), the date of publication for Antillovultur (= Gymnogyps ) varonai Arredondo to be adopted is 31 December 1972, rather than September–December 1971, as has been generally accepted by the palaeontological community.