Archaeopsittacus

Archaeopsittacus Temporal range: Late Oligocene/Early Miocene
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Superfamily:	Psittacoidea
Genus:	†Archaeopsittacus Lambrecht, 1933
Species:	†A. verreauxi
Binomial name
†Archaeopsittacus verreauxi (A. Milne-Edwards, 1870)
Synonyms
Psittacus verreauxii (lapsus) A. Milne-Edwards, 1870

Archaeopsittacus is a genus of prehistoric parrot. It is known from deposits of either Late Oligocene or Early Miocene age (c. 23 mya) at Verreaux near Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France. A single species, Archaeopsittacus verreauxi,[1] is known.[2]

The genus was apparently close to the Old World lineages of parrots and might conceivably be assigned to the modern superfamily Psittacoidea. Its lack of apomorphies prevents any better placement until more material is found.[3]

Footnotes

1. Etymology: "Ancient parrot from Verreaux". Archaeopsittacus, Latinized Ancient Greek, from archaios (αρχαίος) "ancient" + psittakos (ψιττακός) "parrot". Chosen by Milne-Edwards to denote the similarities to the modern genus Psittacus. verreauxi, Latin for "from Verreaux".
2. Waterhouse, 2006
3. Mayr & Göhlich 2004

References

• Lambrecht, Kálmán (1933): [Genus Archaeopsittacus] In: Handbuch der Palaeornithologie: 609. Gebrüder Bornträger, Berlin.
• Mayr, Gerald & Göhlich, Ursula B. (2004): A new parrot from the Miocene of Germany, with comments on the variation of hypotarsus morphology in some Psittaciformes. Belgian Journal of Zoology 134(1): 47–54. PDF fulltext
• Milne-Edwards, Alphonse (1870): Observations sur la faune ornithologique du Bourbonnais pendant la période tertiaire moyenne. C. R. hebd. Acad. sci. 70(11): 557–559. Fulltext at Gallica
• Waterhouse, David M. (2006): Parrots in a nutshell: The fossil record of Psittaciformes (Aves). Historical Biology 18(2): 227–238, doi:10.1080/08912960600641224