Bahaman caracara

Bahaman caracara; Temporal range: Quaternary
Conservation status
	Extinct
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Falconiformes
Family:	Falconidae
Genus:	Caracara
Species:	†C. creightoni
Binomial name
	†Caracara creightoni; Brodkorb, 1959
Synonyms
	Polyborus creightoni;

The Bahaman caracara (Caracara creightoni), also known as Creighton's caracara,^[1] is an extinct bird of prey. It is known only from a few fossils discovered in the Bahamas and Cuba.^[2] Caracara creightoni was a scavenger and opportunistic species instead of a predator like its sister extant species (C. plancus). It lived during the late Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene era.

C. creightoni stood 58 cm tall, was short-winged and likely a poor flier.^[2] This species went extinct as a result of humans arriving on its home islands and wiping out the bird's prey species.^[1] A 2,500 year old C. creightoni femur from an Abaco Islands blue hole yielded a nearly complete mitochondrial genome.^[3] The DNA shows that the species was closely related to the crested caracara. The two species last shared a common ancestor between 1.2 and 0.4 million years ago, during the Pleistocene.

References

^ ^a ^b "Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-08-20.
^ ^a ^b Tumas, Alejandro; Hobbs, Amanda (August 2010), Todhunter, Andrew, ed., "Blue Holes of the Bahamas" in "Deep Dark Secrets", National Geographic 218 (2): insert.
^ Oswald, Jessica A.; Allen, Julia M.; Witt, Kelsey E.; Folk, Ryan A.; Albury, Nancy A.; Steadman, David W.; Guralnick, Robert P. (2019-11-01). "Ancient DNA from a 2,500-year-old Caribbean fossil places an extinct bird (Caracara creightoni) in a phylogenetic context". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 140: 106576. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106576. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 31381968.

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[:0-1] "Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-08-20.

[NATGEO-2] Tumas, Alejandro; Hobbs, Amanda (August 2010), Todhunter, Andrew, ed., "Blue Holes of the Bahamas" in "Deep Dark Secrets", National Geographic 218 (2): insert.

[3] Oswald, Jessica A.; Allen, Julia M.; Witt, Kelsey E.; Folk, Ryan A.; Albury, Nancy A.; Steadman, David W.; Guralnick, Robert P. (2019-11-01). "Ancient DNA from a 2,500-year-old Caribbean fossil places an extinct bird (Caracara creightoni) in a phylogenetic context". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 140: 106576. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106576. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 31381968.

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