Quaternary land vertebrates of Jamaica

Abstract

Quaternary land vertebrates have been reported from 21 sites in Jamaica, almost all of which are located in caves. These cave fossil deposits are widely distributed throughout the island in regions of limestone karst. Each cave deposit consists of autochthonous sediments that cannot be biostratigraphically correlated with other sites containing sediments of similar origin. The age of these deposits has been determined primarily through absolute dating and faunal comparisons. An informal temporal sequence previously proposed for Jamaican vertebrate-bearing strata was based on relative stratigraphic position and faunal content and included four layers (from youngest to oldest):(1) Rattus layer, (2) Oryzomys layer, (3) lizard/bat layers, (4) hard breccias. These strata range in age from post-Columbian (<500 yr B.P.) for the Rattus layer to middle Pleistocene for the hard breccias. Absolute ages have been obtained for six Jamaican cave deposits. The oldest dated Quaternary terrestrial vertebrate faunas are preserved in indurated bone breccias and conglomerates from Wallingford Roadside Cave in St. Elizabeth Parish that range in age from 100 to 250 ka. Undated breccias from Sheep Pen Cave in Trelawny Parish, Molton Fissure in Manchester Parish, and Lluidas Vale Cave in St. Catherine Parish, are probably similar in age. Most of the remaining Jamaican cave faunas are derived from unconsolidated sediments of late Pleistocene and Holocene age. The published Quaternary vertebrate fauna of Jamaica consists of 49 species, including 3 amphibians, 18 reptiles, 9 birds, and 19 mammals. The amphibians include three extant frogs, while the reptile fauna is composed of a turtle, a crocodile, 12 species of lizards, and 4 snakes. Three of the lizards, the large gecko Aristelliger titan, the giant anguid Celestus cf. C. occiduus, and the iguanid Leiocephalus jamaicensis, are extinct. Lizard bones are so abundant in Dairy Cave in St. Ann Parish and several other Jamaican caves that the strata from which they were derived have been called the "lizard layers." Three species of birds from Quaternary sites are now extinct in Jamaica, although the burrowing owl Athene cunicularia still survives elsewhere in the West Indies and the endemic nightjar Siphonorhis americana disappeared very recently. The extinct flightless ibis Xenicibis xympithecus is an endemic genus and species known only from Jamaica. The Quaternary mammalian fauna of Jamaica includes 12 species of bats, 3 primates, and 4 rodents. None of the bats are extinct, but three of the species have disappeared from Jamaica. Brachyphylla nana still survives on Cuba and Hispaniola, whereas Tonatia bidens and Mormoops megalophylla are now restricted to the continental Neotropics. Jamaica has three extinct species of monkeys, which constitutes the largest primate fauna of any Antillean island. Xenothrix mcgregori, an endemic Jamaican genus and species, is so unlike other genera of Neotropical ceboid monkeys that it has been placed in a separate family, the Xenotrichidae. The two other t...

Phylogeny and biogeography of Caribbean mammals

“…The temporal context of taxon cladograms, inferred from (1951), Koopman (1989Koopman ( , 1993Koopman ( , 1994, MacPhee & Horovitz (2002), MacPhee & Iturralde-Vinent (1994, MacPhee et al (1995), MacPhee, White & Woods (2000), McKenna & Bell (1997), Morales & Bickham (1995), Morgan & Czaplewski (2003), Morgan & Woods (1986), Morgan (1993Morgan ( , 2001, Musser & Carleton (1993), Ramos & Borroto (2000), Silva-Taboada (1979) Williams & Koopman (1951), Woods (1989bWoods ( , 1993, . 2 Includes the extant Choloepus; all other genera are extinct.…”

The late Pleistocene hutias (Geocapromys brownii) of Red Hills Fissure, Jamaica

“…This pattern is typical of rodents in which newly-weaned young disperse from natal refugia into an environment that exposes them to predation. Late Pleistocene Jamaican predators would have included a caracara (McFarlane et al 2002), a burrowing owl (Morgan 1993) and the extant Barn Owl.…”

“…Extant populations are known from a wide range of ecotypes, from the arid thorn scrub of the Hellshire Hills to the montane rainforest of the John Crow mountains. Large numbers of hutia bones occur in dry caves throughout Jamaica, with at least 20 documented cave localities (Morgan 1993;McFarlane et al 2002). Anderson et al (1983) reported a further nine amerinidan sites where Geocapromys occurs as a zooarchaeological component.…”

“…Geocapromys has extant sister species on East Plana Cay, Bahamas (G. ingrahami), and extinct congeners on Little Swan Island (G. thoractus; Morgan 1989), Cayman Brac (G. sp. ;Morgan 1993) and Cuba (three nominal species, Anderson et al 1983). The species is now scarce and protected in Jamaica, but was formerly widespread and apparently very numerous.…”

Evidence for Miocene overwater colonization in CaribbeanCyrtognathaspiders

“…Among the islands forming the Greater Antilles, Jamaica is a geological special case since it was originally a part of the Central American tectonic plate. Jamaica emerged as an island around 40 MYA but remained partially or fully submerged until its reemergence in mid Miocene around 15 MYA 30,51– 53 , and was never part of the hypothetical GAARlandia landbridge. Consequently, Jamaica’s biota is distinct from other regions of Greater Antilles 54 .…”