Episode 1287
St. Croix macaw
Thu, 2020-Nov-12 01:14 UTC
Length - 2:35
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Thursday, 12 November 2020 is St. Croix macaw.
The St. Croix macaw or Puerto Rican macaw (Ara autocthones) is an extinct species of macaw whose remains have been found on the Caribbean islands of St. Croix and Puerto Rico. It was described in 1937 based on a tibiotarsus leg bone unearthed from a kitchen midden at a pre-Columbian site on St. Croix. A second specimen consisting of various bones from a similar site on Puerto Rico was described in 2008, while a coracoid from Montserrat may belong to this or another extinct species of macaw. The St. Croix macaw is one of 13 extinct macaw species that have been proposed to have lived on the Caribbean islands. Macaws were frequently transported for long distances by humans in both prehistoric and historic times, so it is yet impossible to know whether species known only from bones or accounts were native or imported species.
As it is only known from bones, the color of the St. Croix macaw is not known. Extant macaws can generally be grouped in either large or small size clusters, yet the bones of the St. Croix macaw are intermediate in size between the two, and it was slightly larger than the extinct Cuban macaw (Ara tricolor). Only the blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis) and Lear's macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) are similar in size. It differed from other macaws in various skeletal details, and shared several features with only the genus Ara. Like other macaw species in the Caribbean, the St. Croix macaw is believed to have been driven to extinction by humans, as indicated by the fact that its remains were found in kitchen middens.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:14 UTC on Thursday, 12 November 2020.
For the full current version of the article, see St. Croix macaw on Wikipedia.
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This has been Amy Neural. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
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