Holocene vertebrate assemblages provide the first evidence for the presence of the barn owl (Tytonidae, Tyto alba) on Socotra Island (Yemen)

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  • Ramello, Gloria
  • Massimo Delfino
  • Emiliano Mori
  • Andrea Viviano
  • Giulio Pavia
  • Giorgio Carnevale
  • Marco Pavia

We describe the vertebrate remains found in a Holocene deposit inside the Taiti Cave, Socotra Island (Yemen). The fossils were found in a sand dune occupying almost entirely the main cavity of the Cave, with some bones collected on the surface and the majority of them found under its surface, in particular below a tiny level of hardened sand, the latter probably related to a guano deposit. They were mostly isolated bones, but under the guano layer, some of them were aggregated and recognizable as belonging to owl pellets. The analysis of the vertebrate remains reveals a great prey diversity and, together with the location of the pellet accumulation and the almost perfect preservation of the remains, indicates that the deposit derived from a pellet accumulation made by Tyto alba. This hypothesis is corroborated by a Tyto alba beak fragment found in the Hoq cave, in a deposit of uncertain stratigraphic context. The data presented herein represent the first documented evidence of the presence of Tyto alba on Socotra Island and indicate the probable existence of a now extinct population of Tyto alba on the island during the Holocene, already extinct at the time of the first ornithological surveys during the XIX Century.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftGeobios
Vol/bind83
Sider (fra-til)85-98
Antal sider14
ISSN0016-6995
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2024

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
First of all, we thank the late Luciano Demagistris and Elsa Nervo who first believed in and supported our research project on Socotra Island, and to whom this work is dedicated. We also thank Roberto Sindaco who facilitated the collecting of some recent skeletons during a later expedition; Edoardo Razzetti (Kosmos, Pavia) kindly provided suggestions, literature, and first-hand information on the Socotran reptiles; Tiziana di Lorenzo (CNR IRET) for the use of microscopy facilities under her care. A special thank to Gilles Escarguel (Editor-in-Chief), Antoine Louchart (Associate Editor), and Edoardo Razzetti (reviewer) for their comments and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. Open Access to the paper is provided by the Università degli Studi di Torino. GR, MD, CG and MP were funded by Università degli Studi di Torino (grants ex-60% 2021 and 2022), EM was funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4. This is the publication number 368 of the Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia collections at the Universit a degli Studi di Torino.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)

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