Rodrigues scops owl
Rodrigues scops owl | |
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Fossils | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Strigiformes |
Family: | Strigidae |
Genus: | Otus |
Species: | †O. murivorus
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Binomial name | |
†Otus murivorus (Milne-Edwards, 1873)
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Synonyms | |
Strix murivora Milne-Edwards, 1873 |
The Rodrigues scops owl (Otus murivorus), also known as Rodrigues owl, Rodrigues lizard owl, Leguat's owl, or (somewhat misleadingly) Rodrigues little owl, was a small
Taxonomy
It is sometimes assumed that Leguat mentioned this bird in his 1708 memoir, but this seems to be in error; Julien Tafforet gave a good description in 1726, however. The Rodrigues bird, which Tafforet compared to the petit-duc, the Eurasian scops owl (and not, as often assumed to the little owl, the chouette chevêche), was more arboreal than its congeners and fed on small birds and "lizards" (small specimens of the Rodrigues day gecko and the Rodrigues giant day gecko). A monotonous call was given in good weather.
Considering the bird's likely relationships as evidenced by the
In the original description,
In 2018, a DNA study by Louchart and colleagues found that the Mascarenotus owls grouped among species of Otus (the scops owls), and therefore belonged to that genus. The cladogram below shows the placement of the Rodrigues owl:[5]
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Description
Tafforet's description of the bird reads as follows:
A bird is seen which is very like the brown owl, and which eats the little birds and small lizards. They live almost always in the trees; and when they think the weather fine, they utter at night always the same cry. On the other hand, when they find the weather bad they are not heard.[6]
Extinction
Regardless of whether Leguat mentioned owls, Tafforet's record is the last reference to this bird. It probably was unable to cope with the ecological alterations and the predation which resulted from the human settlement and the large rat population.
The bird became apparently extinct in the mid-18th century; as Rodrigues is quite a small island, it is likely that Pingré would have recorded them in 1761 if they had still been present.
References
- ^ BirdLife International (2012). "Mascarenotus murivorus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- .
- ^ "Ancient DNA reveals the origins, colonization histories and evolutionary pathways of two recently extinct species of giant scops owl from Mauritius and Rodrigues Islands (Mascarene Islands, southwestern Indian Ocean) | Request PDF". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2018-11-25.
- ^ Duhamel, A. et al. (2020) Cranial evolution in the extinct Rodrigues Island owl Otus murivorus (Strigidae), associated with unexpected ecological adaptations. Scientific Reports, 10:14019.
- S2CID 91541852.
- .
- Milne-Edwards, Alphonse (1873): Recherches sur la faune ancienne des Îles Mascareignes. Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. (Paris) 5(19), Article 3. [Article in French] Note: Usually, the year of publication is given as 1874. However, although the volume was nominally of that year, it was already released in 1873.