St. Croix macaw
The St. Croix macaw ("Ara autocthones") or Puerto Rican macaw, is an extinct species of macaw whose remains have been found on the Caribbean islands of St. Croix and Puerto Rico. It was described in 1937 based on a tibiotarsus leg bone unearthed from a kitchen midden at a pre-Columbian site on St. Croix. A second specimen consisting of various bones from a similar site on Puerto Rico was described in 2008, while a coracoid from Montserrat may belong to this or another extinct species of macaw. The St. Croix macaw is one of 13 extinct macaw species that have been proposed to have lived on the Caribbean islands. Macaws were frequently transported long distances by humans in prehistoric and historical times, so it is impossible to know whether species known only from bones or accounts were native or imported.

As it is only known from bones, the St. Croix macaw's color is not known. Extant macaws can generally be grouped in either large-body or small-body size clusters. Yet, the bones of the St. Croix macaw are intermediate in size between the two, and it was slightly larger than the extinct Cuban macaw ("Ara tricolor"). Only the blue-throated macaw ("Ara glaucogularis") and Lear's macaw ("Anodorhynchus leari") are similar in size. It differed from other macaws in various skeletal details and shared several features with only the genus "Ara". Like other macaw species in the Caribbean, the St. Croix macaw is believed to have been driven to extinction by humans, as indicated by the fact that its remains were found in kitchen middens.
Q123509
extinct
Concept
Q219035
macaw
Concept
Q664609
Caribbean island
LOC
Q642481
St. Croix
LOC
Q1183
Puerto Rico
LOC
Q1432336
tibiotarsus
Concept
Q1152199
kitchen midden
Concept
Q202390
pre-Columbian
Concept
Q1131838
coracoid
Concept
Q13353
Montserrat
LOC
Q646994
Cuban macaw
Concept
Q476593
blue-throated macaw
Concept
Q838955
Lear's macaw
Concept
Q213984
Ara
Concept
Q942656
St. Croix macaw
Concept
Q942656
St. Croix macaw
Concept
Q942656
St. Croix macaw
Concept
Q942656
St. Croix macaw
Concept
Q942656
St. Croix macaw
Concept
1937-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1937
DATE
2008-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2008
DATE
+13^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
13
NUMBER
parent taxon
located on terrain feature