A team of New Zealand paleontologists has discovered in the Saint Bathans fossil site (New Zealand), where birds and dinosaurs coexisted, the fossils of a new genus and species of parrot that lived 16-19 million years ago, according to the researchers in the journal Biology Letters that publishes the study. According to the researchers, there is no doubt that they were the largest parrots in history.
Imagine a 1 meter tall parrot, about the height of a 2-year-old with a giant beak capable of breaking down most food sources. This giant bird lived in New Zealand about 19 million years ago and is the only known giant parrot in the world.
Paleontologists recently described this gigantic bird from a pair of fossilized leg bones found at a fossil-rich site in New Zealand. The bones were “large and robust,” so they could have weighed up to 7 kilograms, according to experts.
The parrot has been baptized as Heracles inexpectatu s: “Heracles” is a nod to the mythical Greek hero, also known as “Hercules”. The species name “inexpectatus” addresses how unexpected it was for researchers to discover this previously unknown colossus.
Land of giants
New Zealand is known for having other types of extinct giant birds that once haunted its forests and grasslands and flew through its skies. The massive flightless moa ( Dinornis robustus ) measured up to 2 meters and weighed up to 240 kilograms, while Haast’s eagle ( Hieraaetus moorei ), the largest known eagle of all time, had a wingspan of approximately 3 meters and weighed up to 12 kg.
Scientists discovered the leg bones of this parrot in 2008. For years, they searched for more fossils of the animal, but additional evidence remained frustratingly elusive, according to Trevor Worthy, an associate professor in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Flinders in Australia and lead author of the study.
The bones were solid and thick-walled, suggesting that Hercules would not have been able to fly. However, it is possible that it could climb trees and glide like the modern kakapo ( Strigops habroptilus ), a large parrot that is also native to New Zealand. Kakapos are currently the largest parrots in the world, but Heracles was easily twice the size of his plump, flightless cousins.
” He lived in a subtropical rainforest where there were abundant laurels, palms, cycads and casuarina trees – they all produced fruit and seeds that this parrot would have eaten,” Worthy said. Hercules likely dominated this niche on the forest floor, which could explain why the species evolved to be much larger than other parrots.
What ended the reign of these powerful birds? The culprit was likely climate change, the researchers say. Around 12 million to 13 million years ago, global temperatures plummeted. Over time, New Zealand’s rainforests became temperate forests, greatly reducing the number of fruit trees across the island. The disappearance of Hercules’ main food source “would be an important candidate to make this bird go extinct,” Worthy said.
The Canterbury Museum’s research curator, Vanesa De Pietri, says, for her part, that the fossil deposit reveals a very diverse fauna typical of subtropical climates with crocodiles, turtles, many bats and other mammals, and more than 40 species of birds. . “This was a very different place with a very different fauna than the one that survived in recent times.”
Mind you, Hercules probably won’t be the last unforeseen fossil from the St Bathans area. ” There are certainly many more unexpected species to discover in this very interesting deposit ,” Worthy concluded.
Fuente: Evidence for a giant parrot from the Early Miocene of New Zealand. Trevor H. Worthy , Suzanne J. Hand , Michael Archer , R. Paul Scofield and Vanesa L. De Pietri. Biology Letters. Published:07 August 2019 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0467
