Antillean Cave Rail

Leg and foot bones of Nesotrochis debooyi

Nesotrochis debooyi is an extinct Rallenart that occurred on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Discovery and description

In July 1916, the American archaeologist Theodoor de Booy discovered in middens deposits in Richmond near Christiansted Saint Croix on the femur and Tibiotarsi a previously unknown, extinct Rallenart, which was described in 1918 by Alexander Wetmore scientifically. In the following years more bone this squacco were found in caves on Saint Thomas and Puerto Rico, which contained the humeri and the remains of the pelvis, the sacrum and the metatarsal. The very thin nature of the humerus suggests that Nesotrochis debooyi was unable to fly. Wetmore suggested a close relationship between the genera Nesotrochis and Aramides, although Nesotrochis debooyi regarding the powerful legs and weak wing differed from the Rails of the genus Aramides. Nesotrochis debooyi reached about the size of a small domestic chicken.

Extinction

The Arawak Indians, the meat was so sought after that they teased this Rail, originally found only in Puerto Rico in captivity and brought to the Virgin Islands. The Rails were hunted with dogs, and it was apparently very easy to grab them with your hands. It is generally assumed that Nesotrochis debooyi probably in pre-Columbian Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands became extinct, however, traditions could benefit from easy -to-catch bird named Carrao, the Alexander Wetmore in 1912 noticed on Puerto Rico, refer to this bird. Today the name is Carrao used mainly for the Limpkin.

Systematics and Nomenclature

Nesotrochis debooyi was long regarded as the sole representative of the genus Nesotrochis. 1971 described the German paleontologist Burkhard Stephan and Karl Heinz Fischer, the fossilized remains of a hitherto unknown Rail bird from the island of Cuba and first called him picapicensis Fulica. 1974 saw Storrs Lovejoy Olson the close family relations between the Cuban form, another extinct Rail of the island of Hispaniola with the name Nesotrochis steganinos and Nesotrochis debooyi, and then wrote a revision of the genus Nesotrochis. With the epithet of Theodoor de Booy archaeologist will be honored.