Athene cretensis Weesie, 1982
Cretan owl, Cretan little ow
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution & Habitat
Armathia and Crete, Greece
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Weesie, P. D. M. (1982). A Pleistocene endemic island form within the genus Athene: Athene cretensis n. sp. (Aves, Strigiformes) from Crete. Proc. Kon. Neder. Akad. Weten., Series B, 85(3): 323-336.
Other references:
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
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)]
Mlíkovský, Jiří. (2002). Cenozoic Birds of the World: Part 1: Europe. Praha, Czech Republic: Ninox Press. 406 pp.
Pieper, H. (1984). Eine neue Mesocricetus-Art (Mammalia Cricetidae) von der griechischen Insel Armathia. Stuttgarter Beitr Naturkunde Ser B (Geol Palaontologie) 107: 1-9.
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.
Weesie, P. D. M. (1987). The Quaternary avifauna of Crete, Greece - Ph D thesis, Univ of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Weesie PDM (1988) The Quaternary avifauna of Crete, Greece. Palaeovertebrata 18, 1–94.