Tag Archives: Marie-Galante

Ara sp. ‘Marie-Galante’

Marie-Galante Macaw (Ara sp.)

This somewhat enigmatic form is known on the basis of two skeletal remains, both found on the small island of Marie-Galante, an island in the Guadeloupe archipelago; the first one is a subfossil ulna that had been recovered from the Folle Anse archaeological site and the other one is a very much older phalanx recovered from cave deposits that are of Late Pleistocene age. 

The Marie-Galante Macaw most likely wasn’t a distinct species but was identical with the Guadeloupe Macaw (Ara guadeloupensis Clark), for which, however, no skeletal specimen exists and which thus still is considered a hypothetical form. [1][2]

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References:

[1] Charles A. Woods; Florence E. Sergile: Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives, Second Edition. CRC Press; Auflage: Subsequent 2001
[2] Monica Gala; Arnaud Lenoble: Evidence of the former existence of an endemic macaw in Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles. Journal of Ornithology 156(4): 1061-1066. 2015

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edited: 06.09.2019