Nesotrochis

Nesotrochis is a genus of extinct flightless rails in the family Rallidae.[1] Its species are considered examples of insular gigantism.[1] This genus, only known empirically from subfossil remains, contains the following species, which are collectively known as West Indian cave-rails:

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

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

References

  1. 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.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.