RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Five new extinct species of rails (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) from the Macaronesian Islands (North Atlantic Ocean) A1 Rando Reyes, Juan Carlos A1 Alcover, Josep Antoni A1 Pieper, Harald A1 Pereira, Fernando A2 Biología Animal y Edafología y Geología A2 Evoluciónecología y conservación de vertebrados en Macaronesia (VerMac) K1 Extinction K1 Macaronesia K1 Quaternary K1 Rallus lowei n. sp. K1 R. adolfocaesaris n. sp. K1 R. carvaoensis n. sp. K1 R. montivagorum n. sp. K1 R. minutus n. sp. AB Five new species of recently extinct rails from two Macaronesian archipelagoes (Madeira and Azores) are described. Allthe species are smaller in size than their presumed ancestor, the European rail Rallus aquaticus. Two species inhabited theMadeira archipelago: (1) Rallus lowei n. sp., the stouter of the species described herein, was a flightless rail with a robusttarsometatarsus and reduced wings that lived on Madeira Island; (2) Rallus adolfocaesaris n. sp., a flightless and moregracile species than its Madeiran counterpart, inhabited Porto Santo. So far, six Azorean islands have been paleontologically explored, and the remains of fossil rails have been found on all of them. Here we formally describe the best-preservedremains from three islands (Pico, São Miguel and São Jorge): (1) Rallus montivagorum n. sp., a rail smaller than R. aquaticus with a somewhat reduced flying capability, inhabited Pico; (2) Rallus carvaoensis n. sp., a small flightless rail withshort and stout legs and a bill apparently more curved than in R. aquaticus, was restricted to São Miguel; (3) Rallus minutus n. sp., a very small (approaching Atlantisia rogersi in size) flightless rail with a shortened robust tarsometatarsus, livedin São Jorge. We note also the presence of rail fossils on three other Azorean islands (Terceira, Graciosa and Santa Maria).In addition, we describe an extraordinarily complete fossil of an unnamed Rallus preserved in silica from the locality ofAlgar do Carvão on Terceira. YR 2015 FD 2015 LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/35283 UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/35283 LA en DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna RD 22-nov-2024