Coturnix undefined-B

Rando, Juan C., Alcover, Josep A., Pieper, Harald, Olson, Storrs L., Hernández, C. Nayra & López-Jurado, L. Felipe, 2020, Unforeseen diversity of quails (Galliformes: Phasianidae: Coturnix) in oceanic islands provided by the fossil record of Macaronesia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 188, pp. 1296-1317 : 1310

COTURNIX SP. B

( FIG. 5)

This material probably represents a new endemic extinct quail from Santa Maria, Azores, although the material is insufficient to confirm, define and name, and we refer to it with an open terminology as an unnamed species of Coturnix . The Santa Maria material consists of three bones (two distal fragments of tibiotarsus and one almost complete femur). The length of the femur (~ 41.6 mm) and the stouter conditions of all fragments indicate that this specimen cannot be assigned to C. coturnix ( Fig. 4). The length of the femur is close to, but slightly longer than, those of C. alabrevis from Porto Santo (range 36.4– 39 mm) and C. gomerae from the Canary Islands (37.2– 40 mm) and slightly shorter than those of C. lignorum of Madeira (42.1–45.1 mm) ( Table 1).

Distribution: Santa Maria Island, Azores archipelago, Portugal.