Mopsitta tanta
| Mopsitta tanta | ||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||
| Lower Eocene , Ypresian | ||||||||||
| 54 million years | ||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Mopsitta tanta | ||||||||||
| Waterhouse , Lindow , Zelenkov , Dyke , 2008 |
Mopsitta tanta is a fossil species of bird that can probably be assigned to the parrots . She lived about 54 million years ago in what is now Denmark . The bird iscloser totoday's actual parrots (Psittacidae) than any otherPsittaciformes foundin the Palaeogene and is perhaps the oldest known parrot from the crown group of Psittaciformes.
Mopsitta tanta was the size of a crow and is the largest parrot fossil found to date. It also has the northernmost location, the Danish island of Mors . During the Eocene period, northern Europe had a warmer climate. Since the parrot fossils found so far in the southern hemisphere have a maximum age of 15 million years, the find suggests that the parrots evolved in the northern hemisphere. The find consists of only one wing bone.
Researchers gave the species the nickname Danish Blue , based on the sketch The parrot is dead by the comedian group Monty Python .
swell
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Parrots lived in northern Europe 55 million years ago. ( Memento from May 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Original message on Wissenschaft.de from May 16, 2008
- The dead parrot from the north. Revised report from Wissenschaft.de - with reconstruction drawing
literature
- David M. Waterhouse, Bent EK Lindow, Nikita V. Zelenkov, Gareth J. Dyke: Two New Parrots (Psittaciformes) from the Lower Eocene Fur Formation or Denmark. In: Palaeontology. 51, 3, 2008, pp. 575-582. doi : 10.1111 / j.1475-4983.2008.00777.x .