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October 4, 2019

Skull of Caracara creightoni

Pictured here is the skull of Caracara creightoni, a large carrion-eating Caribbean falcon driven to extinction by the arrival of humans about 1,000 years ago. It was about the size of modern caracaras, but it had a larger bill and a stronger bite.

[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants BCS 1118369 and BCS 1461496.]

Read more in the Florida Museum news story Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave. (Date image taken: Aug. 14, 2019; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Oct. 4, 2019)

Credit: Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace


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