Cretan Owl
Athene cretensis
The Cretan owl (Athene cretensis) is an extinct species of owl that belongs to the family Strigidae. It lived during the Middle and Late Pleistocene epoch being endemic to the islands of Crete and Armathia in the eastern Mediterranean. It’s mainland ancestor was probably the little owl (Athene noctua).
Its primary prey was likely mouse species Mus minotaurus which is endemic to the island. This is evidenced by the numerous owl pellets containing remains of this species recovered from the caves from which the bones of A. cretensis were found. This species, along with other species of the genus Athene, may have died out due to niche competition from terrestrial carnivores that later arrived in their islands. An alternative is that their extinction may have been due to the arrival of humans on the islands.
From the article Cretan owl on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
In life, it would have been at least 60 cm tall, which is considerably larger than the 22 cm long little owl (Athene noctua). It appears to have been adapted to terrestrial habitats as evidenced by its relatively short wings and legs. Although their legs were proportionally shorter than those of the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia), its legs were still disproportionately long. Morphologically, this species is identical to the little owl except in the form of the crista bicipitalis of the proximal humerus.
== References ==
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Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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Every page naming Athene cretensis in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 774219.