Peters, 1927, has always been considered monospecific, and was described as “A medium-sized ralline with short rounded wing very short tail, the barbs of the rectrices very sparse tarsus stout and short, not exceeding middle toe with claw. However, fossil material of Cyanolimnas cerverai dating from the Holocene has been identified from Cueva de Pío Domingo, Sumidero, and Cueva El Abrón, Sierra de La Güira (Pinar del Río province), Cueva de Paredones and Cueva de Sandoval (Artemisa province), Calabazar (La Habana province), Cueva de Insunsa, Cuevas de Las Charcas and Cueva del Indio (all in Mayabeque province), near Jagüey Grande (Matanzas province), Cueva de Humboldt and Cueva del Salón (Sancti Spíritus province), and the Sierra de Caballos in the northern Isle of Pines ( Olson 1974, Arredondo 1984, Suárez in press), i.e., over a much larger area than the known modern range. Nowadays, this rail is known from just six closely spaced localities in the northern Ciénaga de Zapata (Matanzas province) in south mainland Cuba, based on 14 specimens collected between 19 (all but one in four US museums), and a relatively small number of sight records since 1979, most recently in November 2014 ( Kirkconnell et al. 2020), and habitat change engendered by the spread of the invasive broad-leaved paperback ( Melaluca quinquenervia). Its declining population is apparently threatened by dry-season burning of its marsh habitat, predation by introduced small Indian mongooses ( Herpestes auropunctatus), black rats ( Rattus rattus) and African Catfish Clarias gariepinus ( Collar et al. The Critically Endangered Zapata Rail Cyanolimnas cerverai is endemic to Cuba and unquestionably is one of the most poorly known birds in the West Indian region ( Kirwan et al. cerverai and the two Neocrex species are ascribed to genus Mustelirallus. Based on morphology and our mitochondrial phylogeny, we conclude that it is unjustified to retain the monotypic genus Cyanolimnas and tentatively recommend that C. Their divergence from Mustelirallus was estimated at about eight million years ago. Phylogenetic analyses confirm that Cyanolimnas belongs in tribe Pardirallini as sister to genus Neocrex, from which it diverged about six million years ago. In this study, we extracted historic DNA from a museum specimen collected in 1927 and sequenced multiple short fragments that allowed us to assemble a partial sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene. Whilst pronounced phenotypic convergence–and divergence–among rails have repeatedly proven morphology-based phylogenies unreliable, thus far no attempt to sequence DNA from the enigmatic Cyanolimnas has succeeded. Morphological analyses have suggested that this species, which constitutes a monotypic genus, could be related either to the extinct Tahitian Cave Rails ( Nesotrochis sp.) or to the South American rail tribe Pardirallini, i.e., the genera Neocrex, Mustelirallus, and Pardirallus. The taxonomic affinity of the near-flightless Zapata Rail Cyanolimnas cerverai, a Critically Endangered and highly localized species endemic to Cuba, has long been debated.
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