Otus Pennant

Genus Otus Pennant

Twenty-five complete or nearly complete isolated bones, an incomplete associated skeleton, and fragments of five more bones of a small species of Strigiformes were collected. These bones are referred to the genus Otus. The premaxilla is laterally compressed, whereas it is broader in other Palearctic genera of Strigiformes with species of similar size (such as Athene and Aegolius), and the palatine is characteristically deep and narrow. The pelvis has inconspicuous cristae iliosynsacralis in Otus, whereas in Athene they are prominent. The shape of the alae praeacetabularis ilii is different in Otus and Athene, with a deeper notch in the latter. The generic anatomical differences among the remaining postcranial bones of Otus and the other Palearctic genera of Strigiformes have been described, bone by bone, in Rando et al. (2012a), and they apply here. Additionally, the discovery of associated material demonstrates that all the bones belong to a single new species of Otus.