Cretan owl

Cretan owl
Temporal range: Pleistocene
Athene cretensis and Candiacervus ropalophorus
Prehistoric
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Athene
Species: A. cretensis
Binomial name
Athene cretensis
Weesie, 1982

The Cretan owl (Athene cretensis) is an extinct species of owl from the Pleistocene of the island of Crete, in the eastern Mediterranean. It was first named by Weesie in 1982.[1] In life, it would have been at least 60 cm tall, and flightless or nearly flightless. The Cretan owl became extinct after humans moved into Crete.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.