Huge Parrot Discovered In New Zealand
You don’t find the remains of a giant parrot every day. The unexpected find in New Zealand and its Hercules-like powers have given this new, extinct species the name Heracles Inexpectatus . In our article we will tell you more about this bird species.
The unexpected find of a giant parrot in New Zealand
The remains of this animal were found in Central Otago. This is an area in New Zealand that is known for being home to a wide variety of Miocene fossils.
Researchers have found this bird dates back to the Miocene, which occurred about 19 million years ago.
It is not the first time that fossils of extinct animal species have been found that are similar to today’s but much larger. For example the giant lemurs from Madagascar, whose extinction was probably closely related to the arrival of humans on the island.
In concrete terms , this huge species of parrot is very reminiscent of a species of parrot that lives in our day and age. We are talking about the strange kakapo ( strigops habroptilus) . It’s an interesting bird that is critically endangered.
He weighs about three kilos and because of his weight, just like Heracles, he lacks the ability to fly. But he can camouflage himself very well.
A spectacular bird
The story of this giant parrot is reminiscent of other large extinct species of birds that could not fly, such as the strange elephant bird from Madagascar.
But we don’t need to go that far, because New Zealand is not a new area when it comes to giant birds. An example of this is the moa, a large bird that resembles an ostrich.
Many of these giant birds quickly became extinct by human hands because they could not fly and the hunter-gatherer populations could easily catch them. However, this seems unlikely in the case of this giant parrot, as its fossils are much older than the arrival of humans in New Zealand.
Many of the characteristics of this giant bird are difficult to understand, as is the case with other extinct species whose fossils are found. However, this is a very important find as we have little information on the ancestors of the parrots.
Heracles belonged to a similar group of birds as today’s New Zealand parrots, to which the kakapo and the kea belong. They are completely different from other parrots today, such as the macaw or the cockatoo. These are more stylized and have much more conspicuous colors that are not used for camouflage at all.
