Ornimegalonyx oteroi
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The Cuban giant owl or giant cursorial owl (''Ornimegalonyx'') is an extinct genus of giant owl that measured in height. It is closely related to the many species of living owls of the genus ''
Strix Strix may refer to: * Strix (mythology), a legendary creature of ancient Roman mythology * ''Strix'' (bird), a genus of large "earless" wood-owls * Strix Ltd, manufacturer of kettle controls, thermostats and water boiling elements for domestic ap ...
''.Feduccia, Alan (1996) "The Origin and Evolution of Birds" Yale University Press It was a flightless or nearly flightless bird and it is believed to be the largest owl that ever existed. It lived on the island of Cuba. The first fossil specimen was mistakenly described as a bird in the family Phorusrhacidae, in part because the bones were so large. In 1961, Pierce Brodkorb reviewed the findings and placed them properly, with the owls. Remains have been abundant throughout the island, in cave deposits from the
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...
period (126,000 to 11,700 years ago) and at least three nearly complete
skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
s have been found.


Taxonomy

In the past, three additional species of ''Ornimegalonyx'' besides ''O. oteroi'' were regarded as valid. All were described in 1982 and include: *''Ornimegalonyx minor'' Arredondo,
1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...
Arredondo, Oscar (1982). Los Strigiformes fósiles del pleistoceno cubano. Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales 140, 33-55. *''Ornimegalonyx gigas'' Arredondo, 1982 *''Ornimegalonyx acevedoi'' Arredondo, 1982 A 2020 study concluded that those species are all synonyms of ''O. oteroi'', and describe a new valid species, ''Ornimegalonyx ewingi'', from material formerly assigned to the prehistoric horned owl ''
Bubo osvaldoi ''Bubo osvaldoi'', also known as the Cuban horned owl, is an extinct species of horned owl from Pleistocene of Cuba. It was described by Oscar Arredondo and Storrs L. Olson in 1994 from three bones found in a cave in the Guaniguanico mountain r ...
''. "''Ornimegalonyx arredondoi''" is a ''
nomen nudum In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate descr ...
''; the name was proposed for this species before it was described but ''oteroi'' was eventually adopted by
Oscar Arredondo Oscar Paulino Arredondo de la Mata (18 July 1918 – 20 July 2001) was a Cuban paleontologist. He described a number of birds and mammals of the Quaternary Period from fossils obtained from Cuban caves. He has been called the "father of Cuban verteb ...
(according to the rules of the
ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...
, naming a species after oneself is not prohibited, but it is frowned upon as
vain Vain may refer to: * Vain (horse) (1966–1991), a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse * Vain Stakes, an Australian Thoroughbred horse race * Vain (band), a glam metal band formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1986 * Vaginal intraepithe ...
by the scientific community).


Description

Arredondo estimated the height of ''Ornimegalonyx'' to have been tall.Arredondo, Oscar (1976) translated Olson, Storrs L. ''The Great Predatory Birds of the Pleistocene of Cuba'' pp. 169-187 in "Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology number 27; Collected Papers in Avian Paleontology Honoring the 90th Birthday of Alexander Wetmore"Arredondo, O. (1972). ''Especie nueva de lechuza gigante (Strigiformes: Tytonidae) del Pleistoceno cubano''. Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales 124/125: 129–140. It had very long legs for its size, but was bulky overall and probably short-tailed. Its body mass in life is initially estimated to have been approximately , but later studies suggest a mass of .Alegre, Y. (2002). ''Análisis morfofuncional de la locomoción del búho gigante Ornimegalonyx oteroi (Aves: Strigidae) del Cuaternario de Cuba''. Degree Thesis, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Habana.Feduccia, A. (1999). ''The Origin and Evolution of Birds. 2nd ed''. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut. The modern owl that most resembles the Cuban giant owl in proportions is probably the dainty and quite small burrowing owl, the only surviving owl closely tied to the ground. This implies similar
adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
s to the terrestrial lifestyle, but not a close phylogenetic relationship. The legs and feet of the Cuban giant owl appear to be very large and powerfully built. This supports the theory that they were strong runners, hence the alternate name,
cursorial A cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run. An animal can be considered cursorial if it has the ability to run fast (e.g. cheetah) or if it can keep a constant speed for a long distance (high endurance). "Cursorial" is often u ...
. The keel of the sternum was reduced and the owl may have been capable of short burst of flight. It is probable that, like a modern wild turkey, the owl only took flight when extremely pressed, more often choosing to run. The females of this owl species were larger than the males.


Diet

The Cuban giant owl is believed to have preyed principally on large hutias, including '' Capromys'', '' Geocapromys'', and '' Macrocapromys'' (the latter being the size of a modern nutria or
capybara The capybaraAlso called capivara (in Brazil), capiguara (in Bolivia), chigüire, chigüiro, or fercho (in Colombia and Venezuela), carpincho (in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ronsoco (in Peru). or greater capybara (''Hydrochoerus hydro ...
) and the
ground sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbe ...
s '' Cubanocnus'', ''
Miocnus ''Miocnus'' is an extinct genus of ground sloths of the family Megalocnidae endemic to Cuba during the Pleistocene and very early Holocene epochs, living from 1.8  Mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately . Taxonomy ''Miocnus'' ...
'', '' Mesocnus'', and ''
Megalocnus ''Megalocnus'' ("great sloth" in Greek) is a genus of extinct large ground sloths that were native to Cuba during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. They were among the largest of the Caribbean sloths (Megalocnidae), with individuals estimate ...
''. It was probably an ambush predator that would pounce on unsuspecting prey with its crushing talons.


See also

*'' Tyto pollens'' *''
Tyto gigantea ''Tyto gigantea'' is an extinct barn owl from what is now Gargano Gargano (, Gargano Apulian Italo-Romance arˈgæːnə is a historical and geographical sub-region in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southeast Italy, consisting of a wide is ...
'' *''
Tyto robusta ''Tyto robusta'' was a prehistoric barn-owl. It lived at what is now Monte Gargano in Italy, and was an island throughout much of the Neogene when sea levels were higher. The owl's remains date back to the Miocene-Pliocene boundary 5.5 to 5 mill ...
'' *''
Grallistrix The stilt-owls (''Grallistrix'') is an extinct genus of true owls which contains four species, all of which lived on the Hawaiian Islands. ''Grallistrix'' can be loosely translated as "owl on stilts". The genus received this name due to the lon ...
'' *
Chickcharney The chickcharney (also known as the chickcharnie or chickcharnee) is a legendary creature in the folklore of Andros Island in the Bahama Islands. It is said to live in the forests, is furry or feathered, and about tall, with an ugly appearance r ...
* Late Quaternary prehistoric birds * List of extinct birds *
List of fossil birds Birds evolved from certain feathered theropod dinosaurs, and there is no real dividing line between birds and non-avian dinosaurs except that some of the former survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event while the latter did not. For ...
* List of extinct animals * Flightless birds


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2663732 Strigidae Prehistoric bird genera Extinct flightless birds Pleistocene birds of North America Extinct birds of the Caribbean Extinct animals of Cuba Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Fossils of Cuba Fossil taxa described in 1954 Apex predators