''Gymnogyps varonai'', sometimes called the Cuban condor, is an extinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of large

New World vulture The New World vulture or condor family, Cathartidae, contains seven extant species in five genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas. The "New World" vultures were widesprea ...

in the family

Cathartidae The New World vulture or condor family, Cathartidae, contains seven extant species in five genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas. The "New World" vultures were widespre ...

. ''G. varonai'' is related to the living

California condor The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to nort ...

, ''G. californianus'' and the extinct '' G. kofordi'', either one of which it may have evolved from. The species is solely known from fossils found in the late Pleistocene to early

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

tar seep deposits in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. ''G. varonai'' may have preyed upon carcasses from large mammals such as ground sloths.

History and classification

The species is known from at least six fragmentary fossils housed in the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Havana, Cuba, and includes a

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammal has ...

coracoid A coracoid (from Greek κόραξ, ''koraks'', raven) is a paired bone which is part of the shoulder assembly in all vertebrates except therian mammals (marsupials and placentals). In therian mammals (including humans), a coracoid process is prese ...

, the basal end of a right

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

. The specimens were collected from the Las Breas de San Felipe tar seep site San Filipe II, which is located west of Martí, Cuba. Based on the geology of the sites, the seeps are suggested to date from the Quaternary, being younger than the weathered serpentinites found under the seeps, and older than the of undisturbed topsoil which covers the deposits. A Pleistocene age has been given to both the mollusk fauna, studied in 1935 and the seed flora, studied in 1940. The fossils were first studied by the Cuban Quaternary paleontologist

Oscar Arredondo Oscar Paulino Arredondo de la Mata (18 July 1918 – 20 July 2001) was a Cuban paleontologist. He described a number of birds and mammals of the Quaternary Period from fossils obtained from Cuban caves. He has been called the "father of Cuban verte ...

who described the species and placed it into a new genus ''Antillovultur'' as ''Antillovultur varonai''. The erection of the genus was subsequently questioned by other paleontologists, with Storrs L. Olson in 1978 suggesting it should was possibly a member of the genus ''Gymnogyps''. The fossils were fully redescribed in 2003 by William Suárez and Steven Emslie, who concluded that the species belonged to ''Gymnogyps'' and synonymized ''Antillovultur'' into the genus, resulting in the species being named ''Gymnogyps varonai''.

Description

Overall, the ''G. varonai'' fossils show a robust build and an overall larger size compared to the California condor and ''G. kofordi''. The skull MPSG21 has a width of and a height of and the femur being approximately long. The structure of the skull shows increases in the areas of muscle attachment and suggests larger vertebral dimensions. The bill is more robust than in other species of the genus and the placement of the nuchal crest is further forward. These increases are suggested to be a result of the composition of the diet ''G. varonai'' would have eaten. The large animal fauna of Cuba was mainly composed of several ground sloth genera, such as ''

Megalocnus ''Megalocnus'' ("great sloth" in Greek) is a genus of extinct large ground sloths that were native to Cuba during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. They were among the largest of the Caribbean sloths (Megalocnidae), with individuals estimate ...

'', ''

Acratocnus ''Acratocnus'' is an extinct genus of ground sloths that were found on Cuba, Hispaniola (today the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Puerto Rico. Classification Like all of the Antillean sloths, ''Acratocnus'' was formerly thought on the bas ...

'', and ''

Parocnus ''Parocnus'' is an extinct genus of sloth native to Cuba and Hispaniola, belonging to the family Megalocnidae. It was a large terrestrial ground sloth, being the second largest Caribbean sloth after ''Megalocnus ''Megalocnus'' ("great sloth" ...

''. along with large tortoises and rodents. The thicker hides and shells of the carcasses are suggested to have selected for more robust and powerful carrion feeders.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5624664 v New World vultures Extinct animals of Cuba Fossils of Cuba Pleistocene birds of North America Extinct birds of the Caribbean Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Fossil taxa described in 1971