Thick-billed Parrots
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 Thick-billed Parrot
Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha |
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The Thick-billed Parrots are parrots of the genus Rhynchopsitta. The genus includes just two species:
- Thick-billed Parrot, Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha
- Maroon-fronted Parrot, Rhynchopsitta terrisi
Rhynchopsitta phillipsi, a larger prehistoric relative, was described from Late Pleistocene fossils found in Nuevo León, Mexico. It was not an ancestor to the living species, as bones of them were also found at San Josecito Cave when R. phillipsi's remains were recovered. The prehistoric species had a rather distinct bill shape and may have occurred sympatrically with the Maroon-fronted Parrot in the northern Sierra Madre Oriental (Arroyo-Cabrales & Johnson 2003). Possibly, its bill was adapted to feeding on some species of pine which disappeared due to climate change at the end of the last ice age, driving the species to extinction.
[edit] References
- Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquín & Johnson, Eileen (2003): Catálogo de los ejemplares tipo procedentes de la Cueva de San Josecito, Nuevo León, México. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas 20(1): 79-93. [Spanish with English abstract] PDF fulltext
