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Fossils Of A 19 Million-Year-Old Cannibal Parrot 'Squawkzilla' Found In New Zealand
The fossils of 'squawkzilla', labelled as Heracles inexpectatus, was discovered by scientists recently. A collection of its fossils in a lab storage was rediscovered by the scientists [1] .
The now extinct bird is about 3 feet tall and weighs 15 pounds, which is almost nearly double the weight of the endangered Kakapo, the largest living parrot. The squawkzilla belonged to the Early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of New Zealand.
image source: Flinders University
The scientists measured its size based on two leg bones, called tibiotarsi, under the assumption that they both came from the same bird. It is the largest parrot and might have preyed on other birds. The researchers then compared its bones to bird skeletons in the South Australian Museum collection and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's electronic collection.
The
fossils
were
found
during
a
research
project
in
the
lab
of
Flinders
University,
Adelaide.
Palaeontologist,
Trevor
Worthy,
a
graduate
student
rediscovered
the
bones
after
which
a
team
of
researchers
started
reanalyzing
the
findings.
According
to
National
Geographic,
researchers
concluded
that
the
bird
probably
couldn't
fly
and
ate
what
was
on
the
ground
and
easy
to
reach.
Michael Archer, co-author of the research and palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales told National Geographic that the bird might have been eating other parrots, giving way to a nickname called squawkzilla.
- [1] Worthy TH, Hand SJ, Archer M, Scofield RP, De Pietri VL. 2019 Evidence for a giant parrot from the Early Miocene of New Zealand. Biol. Lett. 15: 20190467.