St. Croix macaw

Ara autochthones Olson, 1978 The St. Croix macaw or Puerto Rican macaw, 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.

About St. Croix macaw in brief

Ara autochthones Olson, 1978 The St. Croix macaw or Puerto Rican macaw, 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. 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. It differed from other macaws in various skeletal details and shared several features with only the genus Ara. The specific name is from the Ancient Greek αὐτ ωθων, meaning native or aborigine. The holotype is housed along with the other bones found at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, cataloged as USNM 483530. The archeological site represents a pre Columbian Saladoid-Ostoid village of around 15,000-2,000 years old, situated on anuvial size, on the eastern bank of the Cerrillos-Bucaná river in south central Puerto Rico, near the town of Hernández Colón.

It is believed that the macaw may have been transported over long distances by humans in prehistoric and historical times, so it is impossible to know whether species known only from bones or accounts were native or imported. As it is only known from bones, the St. croix  macaw’s color is not known. The specific name would be a misnomer, since indigenous Caribbeans are known to have kept and traded macaws over long distance. The only other species described based on physical remains at the time was the Cuban macaw, which was known from skins. In 1978, the ornithologist Storrs L. Olson agreed that the bone belonged to a macaw not assignable to any known species, but noted it may not have been native to St.Croix. In 2001, ornithologists Matthew I Williams and David Steadman stated that there was no reason why there could not have had an indigenous species of Macaw in the Caribbean islands. Though numerous other now-extinct macaws had been described from the Caribbean based on old accounts alone, though numerous other species were known based on skins, the only other species described was the Cuban macaw.

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