A new shearwater from the pleistocene of the canary islands and its bearing on the evolution of certain puffinus shearwaters

Abstract

An extinct species of fossil shearwater (Puffinus holei sp. nov.), referable to the subgenus Puffinus, is described from the sand dune complex of the Jandia Peninsula, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. The material, consisting of adults, nestlings and partial eggshells, indicated that the collecting locality was once a breeding site of the species. A radiocarbon data of 32, 100 ±1, 100 BP, obtained from an eggshell, shows that the colony was still extant during the Devensian (Wünn) Stage of the Upper Pleistocene. Observations on the taxonomy and osteology of the Recent North Atlantic and Mediterranean shearwaters, P.p. puffinus, P.p. ntauretanicus and P.p. yelkouan are also made. It is recommended that these subspecies be elevated to full species status.