Megalocnus rodens (Cuban Giant Sloth)

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NEW QUATERNARY FOSSILS FROM HIGH ELEVATION CAVE DEPOSITS IN CUBA.

High elevation fossil deposits in Cuba have been poorly studied, and there is a limited understanding of how altitudinal changes could have affected the composition of faunal communities in the past. Here, we report fossils of 13 vertebrate species and an invertebrate from 11 late Quaternary cave deposits at elevations ranging from 532 to 1123 meters above sea level, located in the Guamuhaya Masiff in central Cuba. The composition of the vertebrate fauna assemblages recovered from these localities resembles that known from other lowland deposits and includes eight extinct, one extirpated, and four extant species. Furthermore, the specimens reported here record the highest elevation known for nine species recovered.

www.novitatescaribaea.do/index.php/novitates/article/view/359

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Biodiversity and conservation of Cuban mammals: past, present, and invasive species.

Land mammals of the Caribbean Islands biodiversity hotspot have suffered a high rate of extinction since human arrival, principally in the last 500 years since colonialism began. Here, we present an extensive review and bibliography of this topic in Cuba, including details regarding the surviving endemic species of volant and terrestrial mammals and locations of species on 121 protected areas. We analyzed patterns of species richness, endemism, body mass, diet, habitat, geographic distribution of the observed richness, conservation threats, and possible causes and threats to future extinction. Cuban mammal biodiversity is comprised of 59 native species, 24 extinct species and 35 extant species, most of which are endemic to the Cuban archipelago. We compared the threats of habitat destruction and hunting, with emphasis on invasive mammal species as drivers of historical extinction in Cuba. A total of 44 mammal species have been introduced since 1509, with 33 invasive species living in the wild and exerting differing degrees of impact, principally by predation and competition. Additionally, we evaluated interactions among invasive and native mammals, emphasizing predation of feral cats upon Solenodon cubanus, Capromys pilorides, and other small endemic vertebrates as determined from analyses of scat contents. We found that black rats (Rattus rattus) reach densities of 147–322 individuals/ha in Solenodon habitat, thus likely are major competitors for food and refuges to these evolutionarily distinct and endangered Cuban mammals.

www.researchgate.net/publication/319213521_Biodiversity_and_conservation_of_Cuban_mammals_past_present_and_invasive_species

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Assessing the role of humans in Greater Antillean land vertebrate extinctions: new insights from Cuba.

The Caribbean archipelago is a hotspot of biodiversity characterized by a high rate of extinction. Recent studies have examined these losses, but the causes of the Antillean Late Quaternary vertebrate extinctions, and especially the role of humans, are still unclear. Previous results provide support for climate-related and human-induced extinctions, but often downplaying other complex bio-ecological factors that are difficult to model or to detect from the fossil and archaeological record. Here, we discuss Caribbean vertebrate extinctions and the potential role of humans derived from new and existing fossil and archaeological data from Cuba. Our results indicate that losses of Cuba’s native fauna occurred in waves: one during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, a second during the middle Holocene, and a third one during the last 2 ka, combining the arrival of agroceramists and later of Europeans. The coexistence of now-extinct species with multiple cultural groups in Cuba for over 4 ka implies that Cuban indigenous nonceramic cultures exerted far fewer extinction pressures to native fauna than the later agroceramists and Europeans that followed. This suggests a determinant value to increased technological sophistication and demographics as plausible effective extinction drivers. Beyond looking at dates of first human arrival alone, future studies should also consider cultural diversity with attention to different bio-ecological factors that influence these biodiversity changes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.27.922237v3.full

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New insights on the quaternary fossil record of Isla de la Juventud, Cuba.

The fossil record of Isla de la Juventud, the second largest island in the Cuban archipelago, is very limited in the number of taxa and localities so far studied but can be key to further understand the biogeographical history and extinction of the fauna in the region. Here, we report the faunal assemblages of two recently discovered Quaternary deposits containing numerous vertebrates and land snails in northern Isla de la Juventud. The first locality, a marble breccia on the coast of Punta Bibijagua, contained remains of an extinct rodent and a sloth. The second locality, a dissolution fissure filled with fossil-bearing sediment in a marble quarry in Sierra de Casas, contained a rich assemblage of land snails and vertebrates. Nineteen species, 14 genera and nine families of gastropods were identified, of which 11 species and two genera are endemic. The snail fossil assemblage is similar to the community of living gastropods in the locality. Moreover, 12 taxa, four of them extinct, 11 genera from ten families of terrestrial vertebrates were recognized; including the first report of fossils frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, and tortoises from Isla de la Juventud. Because remains at Sierra de Casas were collected ex-situ, any possible stratigraphic relationship among them was lost, but we were able to determine the presence of at least two taphonomic modes that suggest different depositional histories. Furthermore, we found no evidence of extinction or extirpation among land snails in the region, but of the vertebrates’ assemblage two rodents, two sloths and a tortoise went extinct. These five taxa also disappeared in the mainland, suggesting that the extinction was in some cases taxonomic specific across the Cuban Archipelago.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0895981120301991