| Antillean Cave Rail | |
|---|---|
| Leg and foot bones | |
| Conservation status | |
|
Fossil
|
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: | Rallidae |
| Genus: | Nesotrochis |
| Species: | N. debooyi |
| Binomial name | |
| Nesotrochis debooyi Wetmore, 1918 |
|
| Location of Puerto Rico. | |
The Antillean Cave Rail (Nesotrochis debooyi), also known as DeBooy's Rail, is an extinct rail species which occurred on Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. Bone fragments of this species were first unearthed by archaeologist Theodoor de Booy in kitchen midden deposits on the Richmond estate near Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands in July 1916 and described by Alexander Wetmore in 1918. The Antillean Cave Rail might have became extinct before the arrival of the Europeans but stories heard by Alexander Wetmore on Puerto Rico in 1912 about an easy to catch bird named carrao might refer to this species. The Antillean Cave Rail was apparently flightless and was hunted as food by the aborigines