Osteological characters for the identification of Caribbean columbids

Abstract

Columbid remains are commonly recovered from Caribbean archaeological and paleontological sites. Identifying specimens to species level is therefore likely to yield a wealth of information concerning species diversity and changes in their distribution over time. Here we examine the metrical data and 42 osteological characters of eight skeletal elements of 80 specimens belonging to 12 species from five genera that represent most of the indigenous taxa of the West Indies. Our new data provide a reliable means for identifying these birds in the Caribbean fossil and subfossil record.