Late Quaternary fossil mammals from the Cayman Islands, West Indies

Title Variants

Alternative: Cayman fossil mammals

Related Titles

Series: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, number 428

By

Morgan, Gary S. , author

MacPhee, R. D. E. , author
Woods, Roseina. , author
Turvey, Sam. , author

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, NY, American Museum of Natural History, [2019]

Notes

"Issued March 4, 2019."

Local PDF available in high- and low-resolution versions.

Abundant fossils of nesophontid lipotyphlan insectivores and capromyid rodents have been collected from late Quaternary deposits on the Cayman Islands, an island group separated by a major marine barrier from other Caribbean landmasses and isolated from anthropogenic impacts until the arrival of Columbus in 1503 CE. These collections have not previously been formally described. Using morphological and ancient DNA approaches, we document three new taxa of extinct endemic terrestrial mammals from this island group: Nesophontes hemicingulus (Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac), Capromys pilorides lewisi (Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac), and Geocapromys caymanensis (Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac). Morphometric comparisons with other extinct and living West Indian mammals indicate that the biogeographic origins of all three new taxa are from source populations on Cuba. Ancient DNA data indicate very low sequence divergence of Capromys pilorides lewisi from mainland Cuban C. pilorides (only 0.5% across the entire mitogenome). Using probabilistic analysis of existing and new radiometric dates, we calculate an estimated extinction date of 1700 CE (95% confidence interval = 1632-1774 CE) for the Cayman Brac Capromys population. This result suggests that at least one endemic Cayman terrestrial mammal population survived for well over a century following first European arrival in the Cayman Islands. The West Indies lost nearly all its species-rich late Quaternary land mammal fauna during the late Holocene due to direct or indirect human impacts, and this study provides a new baseline to understand the magnitude of human-caused mammal extinctions during the recent past.

Subjects

Capromys pilorides lewisi , Cayman Islands , Dispersal , Effect of human beings on , Extinct mammals , Geocapromys caymanensis , History , Insectivores, Fossil , Mammal populations , Mammals , Mammals, Fossil , Nesophontes hemicingulus , Paleontology , Quaternary , Rodents, Fossil , West Indies

Call Number

QH1 .A4 no.428 2019

Language

English

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0090.428.1.1
OCLC: 1089133977