Coturnix gomerae Jaume, McMinn & Alcover, 1993:154
Canary Islands quail, Canary quail, Canaries quail
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Coturnix undescribed sp Milberg & Tyrberg, 1993:242
Conservation Status
Extinct (Fernández-Palacios et al., 2025)
Last record: late Holocene (Fernández-Palacios et al., 2025)
Distribution & Habitat
El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gomera, La Palma & Teneriffe, Canary Islands, Macaronesia
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Jaume, D., Mcminn, M. and Alcover, J. A. (1993). Fossil bird from the Bujero del Silo, La Gomera (Canary Islands), with a description of a new species of Quail (Galliformes: Phasianidae). Boletim do Museu Municipal do Funchal 2: 147-165.
Other references:
Castillo C, Martín-Gonzalez E, and Coello JJ (2001) Small vertebrate taphonomy of La C ueva del Llano, a volcanic cave on Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain). Palaeoecological implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 166, 277–291.
Faurby, Søren, Matthews, Tom J., Triantis, Kostas A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2026). Quantifying the unrecorded loss of avian phylogenetic diversity. Ecography 2026: e08267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08267
Fernández-Palacios, José María, Fructuoso, Melania, Illera, Juan Carlos, Rando, Juan Carlos, de Nascimento, Lea, Fernández-Palacios, Enrique, Patiño, Jairo, Otto, Rüdiger, Castilla-Beltrán, Álvaro, González, Esther Martín, Orihuela-Rivero, Raúl, Alcover, Josep Antoni, Whittaker, Robert J. (2025). A synthesis of terrestrial species extinctions in the Macaronesian Islands and their correspondence with human occupancy. PNAS Nexus 4(8): pgaf215. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf215 [Supplementary data (.docx)]
Matthews, Thomas J., Triantis, Kostas A., Wayman, Joseph P., Martin, Thomas E., Hume, Julian P., Cardoso, Pedro, Faurby, Søren, Mendenhall, Chase D., Dufour, Paul, Rigal, François, Cooke, Rob, Whittaker, Robert J., Pigot, Alex L., Thébaud, Christophe, Jørgensen, Maria Wagner, Benavides, Eva, Soares, Filipa C., Ulrich, Werner, Kubota, Yasuhiro, Sadler, Jon P., Tobias, Joseph A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2024). The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions. Science 386(6717): 55-60. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk7898 [Supplementary Materials; Dryad dataset; Zenodo codeset]
Matthews, Thomas J., Wayman, Joseph P., Cardoso, Pedro, Sayol, Ferran, Hume, Julian P., Ulrich, Werner, Tobias, Joseph A., Soares, Filipa C., Thébaud, Christophe, Martin, Thomas E. and Triantis, Kostas A. (2022). Threatened and extinct island endemic birds of the world: Distribution, threats and functional diversity. Journal of Biogeography 49(11): 1920-1940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14474 [Appendix S1 (.docx); Appendix S2 (.pdf)]
Milberg, Per and Tyrberg, Tommy. (1993). Naïve birds and noble savages - a review of man-caused prehistoric extinctions of island birds. Ecography 16: 229-250.
Rando JC and Lopez M (1996) Un nuevo yacimiento de vertebrados fosiles en Tenerife (Islas Canarias). Proceedings 7th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology 1, 171–173.
Rando, J. C., López, M. and Jiménez, M. C. (1997). Bird remains from the archaeological site of Guinea (El Hierro, Canary Islands). Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 7: 298-302. [Abstract]
Rando, J. C. and Perera, M. A. (1994). Primeros datos de ornitofagia entre los aborígenes de Fuerteventura (islas Canarias). Archaeofauna 3: 13-19.
Rando, J. C. et al. (1996). Los restos de aves del yacimiento arqueológico de “El Tendal” (La Palma, Islas Canarias). El Museo Canario 51: 87-102.
Rando, Juan C. et al. (2019). Unforeseen diversity of quails (Galliformes: Phasianidae: Coturnix) in oceanic islands provided by the fossil record of Macaronesia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 188(4): 1296-1317. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz107
Sánchez Marco, A. (2010). New data and an overview of the past avifaunas from the Canary Islands. Ardeola 57(1): 13-40.
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/6341/coturnix-gomerae-canary-islands-quail
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