science

Puerto Rican quail-dove

Puerto Rican quail-dove is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Puerto Rican quail-dove rather than just read about it. In short: The Puerto Rican quail-dove (Geotrygon larva) is an extinct species of dove from the genus of quail-doves Geotrygon. It is only known by subfossil material from the Holocene of Puerto Rico.

Key takeaways

Puerto Rican quail-dove belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Puerto Rican quail-dove to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Puerto Rican quail-dove from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Puerto Rican quail-dove (Geotrygon larva) is an extinct species of dove from the genus of quail-doves Geotrygon. It is only known by subfossil material from the Holocene of Puerto Rico.

Taxonomy According to Alexander Wetmore who described this species, it was related to the grey-fronted quail-dove (Geotrygon caniceps), which occurs on Cuba. The tarsometatarsus of the Puerto Rican quail-dove is longer than in the grey-fronted quail-dove. Compared with the ruddy quail-dove (G. montana), which presently occurs on Puerto Rico, the tarsometatarsi are more slender.

Discovery Remains of the Puerto Rican quail-dove were unearthed in the Cueva Clara and Cueva Catedral near Morovis, in the Cueva Toraño at Utuado, and in a kitchen midden near Mayagüez on Puerto Rico. The holotype, a tarsometatarsus, was discovered in July 1916 by zoologist Harold Elmer Anthony in the Cueva Clara.

Extinction The large amount of unearthed material led to the assumption that the Puerto Rican quail-dove might have been a common bird before the initial arrival of humans to the island. Its extinction may have been due to deforestation.

References

Further reading Alexander Wetmore: Bird Remains from the Caves of Porto [sic] Rico In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History No. 46, 1922:p 316–317 Alexander Wetmore: An Additional Record for the Extinct Porto Rican Quail-Dove In: Auk Vol. 40 (2), 1923:p 324 Alexander Wetmore: Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Vol. 9, pts. 1–4. New York Academy of Sciences, 1927, p 405–406 Michael Walters & Julian Pender Hume: Extinct Birds. Poiser Monographes (A & C Black), 2012. ISBN 978-140-815-725-1. p 147.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Puerto Rican quail-dove

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Puerto Rican quail-dove claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Puerto Rican quail-dove before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Puerto Rican quail-dove ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Puerto Rican quail-dove

In research: Puerto Rican quail-dove appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Puerto Rican quail-dove in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Puerto Rican quail-dove is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1920, Columbiformes stubs, Endemic birds of Puerto Rico, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Puerto Rican quail-dove outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Puerto Rican quail-dove in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Puerto Rican quail-dove means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Puerto Rican quail-dove out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Puerto Rican quail-dove in simple terms?

The Puerto Rican quail-dove (Geotrygon larva) is an extinct species of dove from the genus of quail-doves Geotrygon. It is only known by subfossil material from the Holocene of Puerto Rico.

Why does Puerto Rican quail-dove matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Puerto Rican quail-dove?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Puerto Rican quail-dove.