Age, Diakonoff, 1982

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 : 1310-1311

Age : Holocene–Recent.

Status: Extant.

Material: Collected by H. Pieper, O. Runze and K. Groh Main. Sand Place Site (Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira Island): MMF 47441, R uln; MMF 47442, L uln. Ribeira Groh Site (Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira Island): MMF 47443, L tmt. Fonte da Areia Site (Porto Santo Island): MMF 47444 L cmc; MMF 47445, L hum prox frag; MMF 47446 R hum.

COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY

The MANOVA performed with femur, tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus lengths (traits 13, 17 and 20; Table 1) of C. lignorum , C. alabrevis , C. centensis , C. gomerae and both samples of C. coturnix identified significant morphological differences among quails (Wilks' λ = 0.02; d.f. = 15, 105; P <0.001) for the three bones (F = 111; d.f. = 5, 46; P <0.001 for the femur; F = 117; d.f. = 5, 46; P <0.001 for the tibiotarsus; and F = 28; d.f. = 5, 46; P <0.001 for the tarsometarsus). Coturnix lignorum has the longest leg bones of the sample (P <0.001 in all comparisons). Coturnix alabrevis shows significant differences from C. gomerae in the length of the femur (P = 0.001), but not for the tibiotarsus (P = 0.26) and tarsometatarsus (P = 0.45). Coturnix alabrevis shows no significant differences from C. centensis in the length of the femur (P = 0.2), but the quail from Cape Verde had a smaller tibiotarsus (P <0.001) and tarsometatarsus (P = 0.005). In addition, C. alabrevis shows no significant differences from either sample of C. coturnix , current (P = 0.21) and Late Quaternary specimens from Eivissa (P = 0.054), in tarsometatarsus length. However, both samples of C. coturnix have significantly shorter femurs (P <0.001) and tibiotarsi (P <0.001) than C. alabrevis . In contrast, C. gomerae shows significantly longer femurs (P <0.001) and tibiotarsi (P <0.001) than in any sample of C. coturnix , but the tarsometarsus is of similar size (P> 0.35). No significant differences were found between current and Late Quaternary samples of C. coturnix (P = 0.17 for femur; P = 0.62 for tibiotarsus; and P = 0.38 for tarsometatasus length). Coturnix centensis shows a smaller femur (P <0.001) and tibiotarsus (P = 0.028) than C. gomerae , but the tarsometatarsus is of the same size (P = 0.074).

Despite C. lignorum having longer and stouter hindlimb bones ( Fig. 4), it has a humerus of similar size to that of C. gomerae (U = −1.698; P = 0.89) and C. coturnix (U = −0.34; P = 0.734) but significantly longer than C. alabrevis (U = −4.684; P <0.001). The ANOVA performed with the humerus lengths of this last species and those of C. gomerae , C. centensis and C. coturnix identified significant morphological differences (F 4,76 = 77.57, P <0.001). Coturnix alabrevis has a shorter humerus than C. gomerae or C. coturnix (P <0.001 for both cases), but the humerus is of the same size as those of C. centensis (P = 0.976). Coturnix coturnix and C. gomerae have a humerus of similar size (P> 0.7).