islands until recently. Only three endemic Caribbean Ara macaw species are known from physical remains; the Cuban macaw (Ara tricolor) which is known from 19 museum skins and subfossils, the Saint Croix macaw (Ara autochthones) which is only known from subfossils, and the Lesser Antillean macaw (Ara guadeloupensis) which is known from subfossils and reports. No endemic Caribbean macaws remain today, and they were likely all driven to extinction by humans, some in historic, and others in prehistoric times. In addition to the three species known from remains, several hypothetical extinct Ara macaws were only based on contemporary accounts, but are considered dubious today. Many of these were named by Walter Rothschild in the early 20th century, who had a tendency to name species based on little tangible evidence. Among others, the red-headed macaw (Ara erythrocephala) and the Jamaican red macaw (Ara gossei) were named for accounts of macaws on Jamaica, the Martinique macaw (Ara martinicus) was from Martinique, and the Dominican green-and-yellow macaw (Ara atwoodi) was supposed to come from Dominica Island. Other species have been mentioned as well, but many never received binomials, or are considered junior synonyms of other species. Woods and Steadman defended the validity of most named Caribbean macaw species, and believed each Greater and Lesser Antillean island had their own endemic species. Olson and Maíz doubted the validity of all the hypothetical macaws, but suggested that the island of Hispaniola would be the most likely place for another macaw species to have existed, due to the large land area, though no descriptions or remains of such are known. They suggested such a species could have been driven to extinction prior to the arrival of Europeans. The identity and distribution of indigenous macaws in the Caribbean is only likely to be further resolved through palaeontological discoveries and examination of contemporary reports and artwork. See also List of macaws References External links Hybrid Ara macaws Bird genera Ara (genus) Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède