The indigenous fauna of the West Indies collapsed in the Late Quaternary, with the rate of extinction for terrestrial mammals approaching 79-84%, one of the highest in the world. However, in stark contrast to the American continent, radiocarbon dating indicates that mammals survived the end of the Pleistocene with no apparent, or minimal losses despite localized sea level rise and climate change.[2] The same actually caused some bird extirpations and extinctions on the Bahamas, however.[3]
Known from remains dating to either the late Pleistocene or early Holocene.[2] Possibly a synonym of N. gliriformis, with differences owing to sexual dimorphism, but this is rejected by other researchers.[6]
Most recently dated in Grand Cayman to 1439-1643 and in Cayman Brac to 1440-1624. A 1585 reference by Francis Drake to "coneys" and cat-sized "little beasts" on the islands could refer to this animal.[10]
Last recorded in the early 1950s. It disappeared due to predation by cats introduced around the same time, though a hurricane in 1955 may have speeded up the process.[11]
Last collected in 1951; a nest and pellets were found in 1978. The species is threatened by introduced predators (black rat, feral dog, feral cat, mongoose), fires (sometimes set for mosquito control), and deforestation for charcoal production.[13]
Last collected in 1978. It likely declined due to hunting after a military base was built on the island, fires set up by fishermen (both accidentally and for mosquito control), and predation by introduced black rats, cats, and dogs.[14]
Extinct after European contact. Although not dated, remains were found along with introduced Rattus and there are probable references to it in early colonial literature.[2]
Known from an undated femur from either the late Pleistocene or early Holocene. Its morphology suggests arboreality, making unlikely that it became extinct when forests expanded in the Holocene. It might have become extinct due to human-induced habitat loss instead.[15]
Described from subfossil remains. Historical references to an "unusual-looking", edible rat from the colonial period to the 1930s may refer to this species. It likely disappeared due to predation by introduced black rats or mongooses.[20]
Most recent remains dated to 2035–1735 BCE. Possible monkey depictions in petroglyphs, indigenous pottery and other artifacts of Cuba and Hispaniola may indicate later survival.[2]
Only known from the holotype collected in 1877, though subfossil bones of hummingbirds found in the island probably belong to the same species. The causes of extinction are unknown but presumably human-induced.[30]
Last collected in 1881. Mongoose predation has been suggested as the cause of extinction, but the species coexisted with mongooses, cats, and rats for a prolonged time.[32]
Described from subfossil remains in Pre-Columbian kitchen middens, though a 1943 report of a "flightless hen" in Virgin Gorda could have been this species.[33] It was introduced to Mona and the Virgin Islands by indigenous peoples.[5]
Extirpated from Cuba, where it is known from Late Quaternary remains.[35] Survives in parts of Hispaniola, Trinidad and Tobago. May occur as vagrant in Barbados.[36]
Last recorded with certainty in 1880. An unconfirmed sighting was made west of Bimini, Bahamas in 1936. It was hunted with dogs in its only known breeding site, the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.[32] The extinct status is hard to ascertain as it is a nocturnal and dark-colored sea bird.[39]
Most recent remains at Las Breas de San Felipe dated to 10350-2730 BCE. The island was colonized by the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) and the black vulture (Coragyps atratus) after its extinction.[41]
Most recent remains dated to 5050-4050 BCE.[4] The species O. acevedoi, O. minor, and O. gigas are likely the same and represent only size differences due to sexual dimorphism, chrono-temporal or individual variation.[35]
Last confirmed record in 1936 in Saint Croix, with an unconfirmed one on Guana Island in 1985. Likely extinct due to forest clearance for agriculture.[32]
Last confirmed record in 1987. Possible calls were heard on the Sierra Maestra in 1998, but the area is considered too high and outside the historical range of this species.[45]
Presumed extinct between 1944 and 1947 due to poisoning by fruit farmers and capture for the exotic pet trade, though it might have survived after this date. There are also doubts about the validity of this subspecies due to variability within the yellow-shouldered amazon species.[32]
Last collected in 1899. Likely extinct due to persecution as a crop pest and increased mortality by hurricanes as a consequence of deforestation. Another extinct population on Vieques may be a different, undescribed subspecies.[32]
Last recorded in Guadeloupe in 1742. Known mostly from written accounts, illustrations, and possible subfossil remains. A 1779 plate possibly represents a captive animal in Europe.[32]
Hypothetical species only known from a short 1630s description by Jesuit Jacques Bouton, though another short 1658 description of "Ara erythrura" is likely the same animal. Some authors consider these introduced blue-and-yellow macaws from South America, while others identify a slightly different macaw painted by Roelant Savery in 1626 as a representation of this species and thus evidence that it actually existed. However, there is no information about the origin of the bird depicted by Savery.[32]
Last animals were shot (with reservations) in central Cuba in 1889. Probably extinct due to hunting (though it was recorded as foul-tasting), capture as pets, and habitat destruction. The Jamaican red macaw ("Ara gossei"), named from a single 18th century description and illustration, was likely an introduced Cuban macaw.[32]
Last collected in 1929. There was an unconfirmed sighting in 1994 and a possible song recorded in 2021. The species could have suffered from hurricanes devastating its mountain forest refugia in 1899, 1924, and 1929, and inability to recover in the lowlands due to deforestation for agriculture, competition with the Lesser Antillean bullfinch, and predation by introduced rats, cats, small Indian mongooses, and green monkeys.[46]
Last recorded with certainty in 1989, two years after its last major roosting site was destroyed. Likely declined due to deforestation for agriculture.[32]
Known from now lost Late Quaternary remains. Possibly the same as the bobolink (D. oryzivorus), which flies over Cuba during migration but doesn't reside on it.[35]
Last confirmed record in Cuba in 1984, though unconfirmed footage was taken in Guardalavaca in 2002. Declined due to habitat loss caused by deforestation and marshland draining, followed by intensive hunting by bird collectionists as it became rare.[32]
Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Cayman Islands; possibly also Jamaica
Most recent remains in Hispaniola dated to 5480-5370 BCE,[48] the Abaco Islands to 1730-830 BCE,[49]Crooked Island to 1300-1400 CE,[50] and the Caymans to 1030-1585 CE. Historical references to crocodiles on Grand Cayman in 1774 and "alligators" on Great Inagua, Bahamas in 1886 likely refer to this species. Only survives in the Zapata Swamp of western Cuba and the Lanier Swamp of Juventud.[49]
Last recorded in 1851. Likely declined due to predation by the introduced small Indian mongoose, and destruction of its woody swamp habitat for logging, agriculture, and residential development.[55]
Only known from four specimens collected in the 19th century. The causes of extinction are unknown but may include habitat modification for mining, persecution, and predation by introduced rats and cats.[59]
Last recorded in 1976. The causes of extinction are unknown, though most specimens collected and preserved in the 1960s were later found to have suffered from chytridiomycosis. Predation by small Indian mongooses and black rats is also possible.[64]
^The source gives "11,700 calendar yr b2k (before CE 2000)". But "BP" means "before CE 1950". Therefore, the Holocene began 11,650 BP. Doing the math, that is c. 9700 BCE.
^This and many other species in this source have no datation beyond "Late Quaternary"; some may actually represent Pleistocene extinctions. Nevertheless, the author considers that "[m]ost species seem to have become extinct in Cuba, probably during the Late Holocene."[35]
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoMacPhee, R. D. E. (2009). Insulae infortunatae: establishing a chronology for Late Quaternary mammal extinctions in the West Indies. In American megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene (pp. 169–193). Springer, Dordrecht.
^ abcOswald, J. A., & Steadman, D. W. (2018). The late Quaternary bird community of New Providence, Bahamas. The Auk: Ornithological Advances, 135(2), 359–377.
^ abcdefghijOrihuela, J., Viñola, L. W., Vázquez, O. J., Mychajliw, A. M., de Lara, O. H., Lorenzo, L., & Soto-Centeno, J. A. (2020). Assessing the role of humans in Greater Antillean land vertebrate extinctions: New insights from Cuba. Quaternary Science Reviews, 249, 106597.
^ abcOlson, S. L., & López, E. J. M. (2008). New evidence of Ara autochthones from an archeological site in Puerto Rico: a valid species of West Indian macaw of unknown geographical origin (Aves: Psittacidae). Caribbean Journal of Science, 44(2), 215-222.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqBorroto-Páez, R., Mancina, C. A., Woods, C. A., & Kilpatrick, C. W. (2012) Updated checklist of endemic terrestrial mammals of the West Indies. In: Borroto-Páez, R., Woods, C.A., Sergile, F.E. (eds) Terrestrial mammals of the West Indies: Contributions. Wacahoota Press/ University of Vermont, Burlington.
^de Alvarenga Araujo, B. B. (2013) Pleistocene-Holocene extinctions: distinguishing between anthropic and climatic causes.
^McAfee, R., Beery, S., Rimoli, R., Almonte, J., Lehman, P., & Cooke, S. (2021). New species of the ground sloth Parocnus from the late Pleistocene-early Holocene of Hispaniola. Vertebrate Anatomy, Morphology, Palaeontology, 9(1).
^ abcMorgan, Gary S., et al. "Late Quaternary fossil mammals from the Cayman Islands, West Indies." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2019.428 (2019): 1–82.
^Turvey, S. T., Grady, F. V., & Rye, P. (2006). A new genus and species of ‘giant hutia’(Tainotherium valei) from the Quaternary of Puerto Rico: an extinct arboreal quadruped?. Journal of Zoology, 270(4), 585-594.
^Cooke, S. B., Rosenberger, A. L., & Turvey, S. (2011). An extinct monkey from Haiti and the origins of the Greater Antillean primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 2699–2704.
^Cooke, S. B., Mychajliw, A. M., Southon, J., & MacPhee, R. D. (2017). The extinction of Xenothrix mcgregori, Jamaica's last monkey. Journal of Mammalogy, 98(4), 937–949.
^ abMacPhee, Ross DE, Clare Flemming, and Darrin P. Lunde. ""Last occurrence" of the Antillean insectivoran Nesophontes: new radiometric dates and their interpretation. American Museum novitates; no. 3261." (1999).
^ abOrihuela, J., Orozco, L. P., Licourt, J. L. Á., Muñoz, R. A. V., & Barani, C. S. (2020). Late Holocene land vertebrate fauna from Cueva de los Nesofontes, Western Cuba: stratigraphy, last appearance dates, diversity and paleoecology. bioRxiv.
^ abOrihuela, J. (2010). Late Holocene fauna from a cave deposit in Western Cuba: post-Columbian occurrence of the vampire bat Desmodus rotundus (Phyllostomidae: Desmodontinae). Caribbean Journal of Science, 46(2–3), 297–312.
^Westermann, J.H. (1953) Nature preservation in the Caribbean: A review of literature of the destruction and preservation of flora and fauna in the Caribbean area. Foundation for Scientific Research in Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles, 106 pages.
^ abcdeSteadman, D. W., Pregill, G. K., & Olson, S. L. (1984). Fossil vertebrates from Antigua, Lesser Antilles: evidence for late Holocene human-caused extinctions in the West Indies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 81(14), 4448–4451.
^Olson, S. L. (1974). A new species of Nesotrochis from Hispaniola, with notes on other fossil rails from the West Indies (Aves: Rallidae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.
^Oswald, J. A., Terrill, R. S., Stucky, B. J., LeFebvre, M. J., Steadman, D. W., Guralnick, R. P., & Allen, J. M. (2021). Ancient DNA from the extinct Haitian cave-rail (Nesotrochis steganinos) suggests a biogeographic connection between the Caribbean and Old World. Biology letters, 17(3), 20200760.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzOrihuela, J. (2019). An annotated list of Late Quaternary extinct birds of Cuba. Ornitología Neotropical, 30, 57–67.
^Steadman, D. W., & Takano, O. M. (2013). A late-Holocene bird community from Hispaniola: refining the chronology of vertebrate extinction in the West Indies. The Holocene, 23(7), 936–944.
^Suárez, W., & Olson, S. L. (2020). A new fossil vulture (Cathartidae: Cathartes) from Quaternary asphalt and cave deposits in Cuba. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 140(3), 335-343.
^Quote In: Lefroy, J. H. (1981). Memorials of the discovery and early settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515–1685. Second reprinting, volume 1. Bermuda Historical Society, Hamilton, p. 330
^Morgan, G. S., Albury, N. A., Rímoli, R., Lehman, P., Rosenberger, A. L., & Cooke, S. B. (2018). The Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) from Late Quaternary underwater cave deposits in the Dominican Republic. American Museum Novitates, 2018(3916), 1-56.
^ abMorgan, G. S., & Albury, N. A. (2013). The Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) from late Quaternary fossil deposits in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands (pp. 161-236). University of Florida.
^Steadman, D. W., Singleton, H. M., Delancy, K. M., Albury, N. A., Soto-Centeno, J. A., Gough, H., ... & Keegan, W. F. (2017). Late Holocene historical ecology: The timing of vertebrate extirpation on Crooked Island, Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 12(4), 572-584.
^ abcdeConservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. A.G.J. Rhodin, P.C.H. Pritchard, P.P. van Dijk, R.A. Saumure, K.A. Buhlmann, J.B. Iverson, and R.A. Mittermeier, Eds. Chelonian Research Monographs (ISSN 1088-7105) No. 5, doi:10.3854/crm.5.000e.fossil.checklist.v1.2015
^Kehlmaier, C., Barlow, A., Hastings, A. K., Vamberger, M., Paijmans, J. L., Steadman, D. W., ... & Fritz, U. (2017). Tropical ancient DNA reveals relationships of the extinct Bahamian giant tortoise Chelonoidis alburyorum. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1846), 20162235.
^Viñola-López, L. W., & Almonte, J. N. (2022). Revision of the fossil land tortoises (Testudines: Testudinidae) from Hispaniola with the description of a new species. Novitates Caribaea, (20), 11-29.
^Vinciguerra, R. (2009). Osservazioni su Urania sloanus (Cramer, 1779)(Lepidoptera: Uraniidae). SHILAP Revista de Lepidopterología, 37(147), 307-311.
^Rózsa, L., & Vas, Z. (2015). Co-extinct and critically co-endangered species of parasitic lice, and conservation-induced extinction: should lice be reintroduced to their hosts?. Oryx, 49(1), 107-110.
^Seal, West Indian Monk. Published 13 July 2004 by the American Society of Mammalogists.
^Lourenço, W. R. (1995). The remarkable discovery of a new and extinct species of Tityus from Martinique in Lesser Antilles (Chelicerata, Scorpiones, Buthidae). Anales de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Serie Zoológica, 66(1), 27–32.
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