The broad-billed parrot or raven parrot (''Lophopsittacus mauritianus'') is a large
extinct parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Psittaculidae
Psittaculidae is a family containing Old World parrots. It consists of five subfamilies: Agapornithinae, Loriinae, Platycercinae, Psittacellinae and Psittaculinae.
This family has been accepted into ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World' ...
. It was
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to the
Mascarene
The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...
island of
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
east of
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
. It is unclear what other
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
it is most closely related to, but it has been classified as a member of the
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
Psittaculini, along with other Mascarene parrots. It had similarities with the
Rodrigues parrot (''Necropsittacus rodricanus''), and may have been closely related.
The broad-billed parrot's head was large in proportion to its body, and there was a distinct crest of feathers on the front of the head. The bird had a very large beak, comparable in size to that of the
hyacinth macaw
The hyacinth macaw (''Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus''), or hyacinthine macaw, is a parrot native to central and eastern South America. With a length (from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail) of about one meter it is longer tha ...
, which would have enabled it to crack hard seeds.
Subfossil bones indicate that the species exhibited greater
sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...
in overall size and head size than any living parrot. The exact colouration is unknown, but a contemporary description indicates that it had multiple colours, including a blue head, and perhaps a red body and beak. It is believed to have been a weak flier, but not flightless.
The broad-billed parrot was first referred to as the "''Indian raven''" in Dutch ships' journals from 1598 onwards. Only a few brief contemporary descriptions and three depictions are known. It was first
scientifically described
A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...
from a subfossil mandible in 1866, but this was not linked to the old accounts until the rediscovery of a detailed 1601 sketch that matched both the subfossils and the accounts. The bird became extinct in the 17th century owing to a combination of
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...
, predation by introduced
invasive species, and probably hunting as well.
Taxonomy
The earliest known descriptions of the broad-billed parrot were provided by Dutch travellers during the
Second Dutch Expedition to Indonesia
The Second Dutch Expedition to East Indies was an expedition that took place from 1598 to 1600, one of the Dutch forays into the East Indies spice trade that led to the establishment of the Dutch East India Company. It was led by Jacob Cornelius ...
, led by the Dutch Admiral
Jacob Cornelis van Neck in 1598. They appear in reports published in 1601, which also contain the first illustration of the bird, along with the first of a
dodo
The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...
. The description for the illustration reads: "5* Is a bird which we called the ''Indian Crow'', more than twice as big as the parroquets, of two or three colours". The Dutch sailors who visited
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
categorised the broad-billed parrots separately from parrots, and referred to them as "''Indische ravens''" (translated as either "Indian
ravens" or "''Indian
crow
A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...
s''") without accompanying useful descriptions, which caused confusion when their journals were studied.
[Cheke and Hume (2008). p. 172.] The Dutch painter
Jacob Savery lived in a house in Amsterdam called "''In de Indische Rave''" (Dutch for "''in the Indian raven''") until 1602, since Dutch houses had
signboards
Signage is the design or use of signs and symbols to communicate a message. A signage also means signs ''collectively'' or being considered as a group. The term ''signage'' is documented to have been popularized in 1975 to 1980.
Signs are any ...
instead of numbers at the time. While he and his brother, the painter
Roelant Savery
Roelant Savery (or ''Roeland(t) Maertensz Saverij'', or ''de Savery'', or many variants; 1576 – buried 25 February 1639) was a Flanders-born Dutch Golden Age painter.
Life
Savery was born in Kortrijk. Like so many other artists, he belonge ...
, did not paint this species and it does not appear to have been transported from Mauritius, they may have read about it or heard about it from the latter's contacts in the court of Emperor
Rudolf II
Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...
(Roelant painted other extinct Mauritian species in the emperor's menagerie).
The British naturalist
Hugh Edwin Strickland
Hugh Edwin Strickland (2 March 1811 – 14 September 1853) was an English geologist, ornithologist, naturalist and systematist. Through the British Association, he proposed a series of rules for the nomenclature of organisms in zoology, known as ...
assigned the "''Indian ravens''" to the
hornbill genus ''
Buceros
''Buceros'' is a genus of large Asian hornbills (family Bucerotidae).
Description
Hornbills in the genus ''Buceros'' include some of the largest arboreal hornbills in the world, with the largest being the great hornbill. All the hornbills in th ...
'' in 1848, because he interpreted the projection on the forehead in the 1601 illustration as a horn.
[Check & Hume. (2008). pp. 23–25.] The Dutch and the French also referred to South American
macaws as "''Indian ravens''" during the 17th century, and the name was used for hornbills by Dutch, French, and English speakers in the
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...
.
[Hume, J. P. (2007). pp. 4–17.] The British traveller
Sir Thomas Herbert
Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet (1606–1682), was an English traveller, historian and a gentleman of the bedchamber of King Charles I while Charles was in the custody of Parliament (from 1647 until the king's execution in January 1649).
Biogr ...
referred to the broad-billed parrot as "''Cacatoes''" (
cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the orde ...
) in 1634, with the description "birds like Parrats, fierce and indomitable", but naturalists did not realise that he was referring to the same bird.
Even after subfossils of a parrot matching the descriptions were found, the French
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
Emile Oustalet
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
argued in 1897 that the "''Indian raven''" was a hornbill whose remains awaited discovery. The Mauritian ornithologist
France Staub was in favour of this idea as late as 1993. No remains of hornbills have ever been found on the island, and apart from an extinct species from
New Caledonia, hornbills are not found on any
oceanic island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
s.
[
The first known physical remain of the broad-billed parrot was a subfossil mandible collected along with the first batch of dodo bones found in the ]Mare aux Songes
The Mare aux Songes () swamp is a lagerstätte located close to the sea in south eastern Mauritius. Many subfossils of recently extinct animals have accumulated in the swamp, which was once a lake, and some of the first subfossil remains of dodos w ...
swamp. The British biologist Richard Owen described the mandible in 1866 and identified it as belonging to a large parrot species, to which he gave the binomial name ''Psittacus
''Psittacus'' is a genus of African grey parrots in the subfamily Psittacinae. It contains the two species: the grey parrot (''Psittacus erithacus'') and the Timneh parrot (''Psittacus timneh'').
For many years, the grey parrot and Timneh p ...
mauritianus''. This holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...
specimen is now lost.[ The common name "broad-billed parrot" was first used by Owen in a 1866 lecture. In 1868, shortly after the 1601 journal of the ]Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
ship ''Gelderland'' had been rediscovered, the German ornithologist Hermann Schlegel
Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist.
Early life and education
Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulate ...
examined an unlabelled pen-and-ink sketch in it. Realising that the drawing, which is attributed to the Dutch artist Joris Joostensz Laerle, depicted the parrot described by Owen, Schlegel made the connection with the old journal descriptions. Because its bones and crest are significantly different from those of ''Psittacus'' species, the British zoologist Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume ''Dictionar ...
assigned it to its own genus in 1875, which he called ''Lophopsittacus''. ''Lophos'' is the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
word for crest, referring here to the bird's frontal crest, and ''psittakos'' means parrot. More fossils were later found by Theodore Sauzier, and described by the British ornithologists Edward Newton
Sir Edward Newton (10 November 1832 – 25 April 1897) was a British colonial administrator and ornithologist.
He was born at Elveden Hall, Suffolk the sixth and youngest son of William Newton, MP. He was the brother of ornithologist Alfre ...
and Hans Gadow in 1893. These included previously unknown elements such as the sternum
The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. Sha ...
(breast-bone), femur
The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...
, metatarsus
The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes. Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are numbered from the me ...
, and a lower jaw larger than the one that was originally described.
In 1973, based on remains collected by the French amateur naturalist Louis Etienne Thirioux in the early 20th century, the British ornithologist Daniel T. Holyoak placed a small subfossil Mauritian parrot in the same genus as the broad-billed parrot and named it '' Lophopsittacus bensoni''. In 2007, on the basis of a comparison of subfossils, correlated with 17th and 18th century descriptions of small grey parrots, Hume reclassified it as a species in the genus ''Psittacula
Members of the parrot genus ''Psittacula'' or Afro-Asian ring-necked parrots they are commonly known in aviculture originate from Africa to South-East Asia. It is a widespread group with a clear concentration of species in south Asia, but also ...
'' and called it Thirioux's grey parrot.[ In 1967, the American ornithologist ]James Greenway
James Cowan Greenway (April 7, 1903 – June 10, 1989) was an American ornithologist. An eccentric, shy, and often reclusive man, his survey of extinct and vanishing birds provided the base for much subsequent work on bird conservation.
Early ...
had speculated that reports of grey Mauritian parrots referred to the broad-billed parrot.
Evolution
The taxonomic affinities of the broad-billed parrot are undetermined. Considering its large jaws and other osteological
Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, func ...
features, Newton and Gadow thought it to be closely related to the Rodrigues parrot (''Necropsittacus rodricanus'') in 1893, but were unable to determine whether they both belonged in the same genus, since a crest was only known from the latter. The British ornithologist Graham S. Cowles instead found their skulls too dissimilar for them to be close relatives in 1987.
Many endemic Mascarene birds, including the dodo, are derived from South Asian ancestors, and the British palaeontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
Julian Hume
Julian Pender Hume (born 3 March 1960) is an English palaeontologist, artist and writer who lives in Wickham, Hampshire. He was born in Ashford, Kent, and grew up in Portsmouth, England. He attended Crookhorn Comprehensive School between 1971 an ...
has proposed that this may be the case for all the parrots there as well. Sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
, so it was possible for species to colonise some of the then less isolated islands.[Cheke and Hume (2008). p. 71.] Although most extinct parrot species of the Mascarenes are poorly known, subfossil remains show that they shared features such as enlarged heads and jaws, reduced pectoral
Pectoral may refer to:
* The chest region and anything relating to it.
* Pectoral cross, a cross worn on the chest
* a decorative, usually jeweled version of a gorget
* Pectoral (Ancient Egypt), a type of jewelry worn in ancient Egypt
* Pectorali ...
bones, and robust leg bones. Hume has suggested that they have a common origin in the radiation of the tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
Psittaculini, basing this theory on morphological features and the fact that ''Psittacula'' parrots have managed to colonise many isolated islands in the Indian Ocean.[ The Psittaculini may have invaded the area several times, as many of the species were so specialised that they may have evolved significantly on hotspot islands before the Mascarenes emerged from the sea.]
Description
The broad-billed parrot had a disproportionately large head and jaws, and the skull was flattened from top to bottom, unlike in other Mascarene parrots. Ridges on the skull indicate that its distinct frontal crest
Crest or CREST may refer to:
Buildings
*The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York
*"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York
*Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...
of feathers was firmly attached, and that the bird, unlike cockatoos, could not raise or lower it. The width of the hind edge of the mandibular symphysis (where the two halves of the lower jaw connected) indicate that the jaws were comparatively broad.[ The 1601 ''Gelderland'' sketch was examined in 2003 by Hume, who compared the ink finish with the underlying pencil sketch and found that the latter showed several additional details. The pencil sketch depicts the crest as a tuft of rounded feathers attached to the front of the head at the base of the beak, and shows rounded wings with long primary ]covert feathers
A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts
The ear coverts are sm ...
, large secondary feathers, and a slightly bifurcated tail, with the two central feathers longer than the rest.[ Measurements of some of the first known bones show that the mandible was in length, in width, the femur was in length, the tibia was , and the metatarsus .] The sternum was relatively reduced.[
Subfossils show that the males were larger, measuring to the females' . The ]sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...
in size between male and female skulls is the largest among parrots.[ Differences in the bones of the rest of the body and limbs are less pronounced; nevertheless, it had greater sexual dimorphism in overall size than any living parrot. The size differences between the two birds in the 1601 sketch may be due to this feature.][Hume, J. P. (2007). p. 51.] A 1602 account by the Dutch sailor Reyer Cornelisz has traditionally been interpreted as the only contemporary mention of size differences among broad-billed parrots, listing "large and small ''Indian crows''" among the animals of the island. A full transcript of the original text was only published in 2003, and showed that a comma had been incorrectly placed in the English translation; "large and small" instead referred to "field-hens", possibly the red rail
The red rail (''Aphanapteryx bonasia'') is an extinct species of flightless rail. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It had a close relative on Rodrigues island, the likewise extinct R ...
and the smaller Cheke's wood rail
Cheke's wood rail (''Dryolimnas chekei''), also known as Sauzier's wood rail, is an extinct species of rail which was endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius. It was described by British ornithologist Julian P. Hume in 2019, and the name hon ...
.
Possible colouration
There has been some confusion over the colouration of the broad-billed parrot. The report of van Neck's 1598 voyage, published in 1601, contained the first illustration of the parrot, with a caption stating that the bird had "two or three colours". The last account of the bird, and the only mention of specific colours, was by the German preacher Johann Christian Hoffman in 1673–75:
In spite of the mention of several colours, authors such as the British naturalist Walter Rothschild
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoologist and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he was presen ...
claimed that the ''Gelderland'' journal described the bird as entirely blue-grey, and it was restored this way in Rothschild's 1907 book '' Extinct Birds''. Later examination of the journal by Julian Hume has revealed only a description of the dodo. He suggested that the distinctively drawn facial mask may represent a separate colour. The British ecologist Anthony S. Cheke suggested in 1987 that in addition to size dimorphism, the sexes may have had different colours, which would explain some of the discrepancies in the old descriptions. The head was evidently blue, and in 2007, Hume suggested the beak may have been red, and the rest of the plumage greyish or blackish, which also occurs in other members of Psittaculini.[
In 2015, a translation of the 1660s report of the Dutch soldier Johannes Pretorius about his stay on Mauritius (from 1666 to 1669) was published, wherein he described the bird as "very beautifully coloured". Hume accordingly reinterpreted Hoffman's account, and suggested the bird may have been brightly coloured with a red body, blue head, and red beak; the bird was illustrated as such in the paper. Possible iridescent or glossy feathers that changed appearance according to angle of light may also have given the impression that it had even more colours.] The Australian ornithologist Joseph M. Forshaw agreed in 2017 that the bill was red (at least in males), but interpreted Hoffman's account as suggesting a more subdued reddish-brown colouration in general, with a pale bluish-grey head, similar to the Mascarene parrot
The Mascarene parrot or mascarin (''Mascarinus mascarinus'') is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. The taxonomic relationships of this species have been subject to ...
.
Behaviour and ecology
Pretorius kept various now-extinct Mauritian birds in captivity, and described the behaviour of the broad-billed parrot as follows:
Though the broad-billed parrot may have fed on the ground and been a weak flier, its tarsometatarsus (lower leg bone) was short and stout, implying some arboreal
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose nu ...
(tree-dwelling) characteristics. The Newton brothers and many authors after them inferred that it was flightless
Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species, including the well known ratites (ostriches, emu, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwi) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the ...
, due to the apparent short wings and large size shown in the 1601 ''Gelderland'' sketch. According to Hume, the underlying pencil sketch actually shows that the wings are not particularly short. They appear broad, as they commonly are in forest-adapted species, and the alula
The alula , or bastard wing, (plural ''alulae'') is a small projection on the anterior edge of the wing of modern birds and a few non-avian dinosaurs. The word is Latin and means "winglet"; it is the diminutive of ''ala'', meaning "wing". The al ...
appears large, a feature of slow-flying birds. Its sternal keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
was reduced, but not enough to prevent flight, as the adept flying ''Cyanoramphus
''Cyanoramphus'' is a genus of parakeets native to New Zealand and islands of the southern Pacific Ocean. The New Zealand forms are often referred to as kākāriki. They are small to medium-sized parakeets with long tails and predominantly gree ...
'' parrots also have reduced keels, and even the flightless kakapo, with its vestigial
Vestigiality is the retention, during the process of evolution, of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on co ...
keel, is capable of gliding.[ Furthermore, Hoffman's account states that it could fly, albeit with difficulty, and the first published illustration shows the bird on top of a tree, an improbable position for a flightless bird.] The broad-billed parrot may have been behaviourally near-flightless, like the now-extinct Norfolk Island kaka.
Sexual dimorphism in beak size may have affected behaviour. Such dimorphism is common in other parrots, for example in the palm cockatoo and the New Zealand kaka
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
. In species where it occurs, the sexes prefer food of different sizes, the males use their beaks in rituals, or the sexes have specialised roles in nesting and rearing. Similarly, the large difference between male and female head size may have been reflected in the ecology of each sex, though it is impossible to determine how.[
In 1953, the Japanese ornithologist ]Masauji Hachisuka
, 18th Marquess Hachisuka, was a Japanese ornithologist and aviculturist.Delacour, J. (1953) The Dodo and Kindred Birds by Masauji Hachisuka (Review). The Condor 55 (4): 223.Peterson, A. P. (2013Author Index: Hachisuka, Masauji (Masa Uji), marqu ...
suggested the broad-billed parrot was nocturnal, like the kakapo and the night parrot
The night parrot (''Pezoporus occidentalis'') is a small parrot endemic to the continent of Australia. It has also been known as porcupine parrot, nocturnal ground parakeet, midnight cockatoo, solitaire, spinifex parrot and night parakeet. It i ...
, two extant ground-dwelling parrots. Contemporary accounts do not corroborate this, and the orbits
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...
are of similar size to those of other large diurnal parrots.[ The broad-billed parrot was recorded on the dry leeward side of Mauritius, which was the most accessible for people, and it was noted that birds were more abundant near the coast, which may indicate that the fauna of such areas was more diverse. It may have nested in tree cavities or rocks, like the Cuban amazon. The terms ''raven'' or ''crow'' may have been suggested by the bird's harsh call, its behavioural traits, or just its dark plumage.][ The following description by the Dutch bookkeeper Jacob Granaet from 1666 mentions some of the broad-billed parrot's co-inhabitants of the forests, and might indicate its demeanour:
Many other endemic species of Mauritius were lost after human colonisation, so the ]ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
of the island is severely damaged and hard to reconstruct. Before humans arrived, Mauritius was entirely covered in forests, almost all of which have since been lost to deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...
. The surviving endemic fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...
is still seriously threatened. The broad-billed parrot lived alongside other recently extinct Mauritian birds such as the dodo, the red rail, the Mascarene grey parakeet, the Mauritius blue pigeon, the Mauritius scops owl, the Mascarene coot, the Mauritian shelduck, the Mauritian duck, and the Mauritius night heron. Extinct Mauritian reptiles include the saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise, the domed Mauritius giant tortoise
The domed Mauritius giant tortoise (''Cylindraspis triserrata'') is an extinct species of giant tortoise. It was endemic to Mauritius.
Description
One of two different giant tortoise species which were endemic to Mauritius, this domed species s ...
, the Mauritian giant skink, and the Round Island burrowing boa. The small Mauritian flying fox and the snail ''Tropidophora carinata
''Tropidophora carinata'' is a species of land snail with a gill and an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae.
This species was found in Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Ma ...
'' lived on Mauritius and Réunion but became extinct in both islands. Some plants, such as '' Casearia tinifolia'' and the palm orchid, have also become extinct.[Cheke and Hume (2008). pp. 371–373.]
Diet
Species that are morphologically similar to the broad-billed parrot, such as the hyacinth macaw
The hyacinth macaw (''Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus''), or hyacinthine macaw, is a parrot native to central and eastern South America. With a length (from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail) of about one meter it is longer tha ...
and the palm cockatoo, may provide insight into its ecology. ''Anodorhynchus
''Anodorhynchus'' is a genus of large blue macaws from open and semi-open habitats in central and eastern South America. It includes two extant species, the hyacinth macaw and Lear's macaw also known as the indigo macaw, and one probably extinct ...
'' macaws, which are habitual ground dwellers, eat very hard palm nuts.[ Many types of palms and palm-like plants on Mauritius produce hard seeds that the broad-billed parrot may have eaten, including '' Latania loddigesii'', '' Mimusops maxima'', '']Sideroxylon grandiflorum
''Sideroxylon grandiflorum'', known as tambalacoque or dodo tree, is a long-lived mesocaul tree in the sapote family Sapotaceae, superfiially resembling the unrelated Plumeria, but the Dodo Tree's flowers and fruit are cauliflorous. endemic to ...
'', '' Diospyros egrettorium'', and ''Pandanus utilis
''Pandanus utilis'', the common screwpine is, despite its name, a monocot and not a pine.
It is native to Madagascar and naturalised in Mauritius and the Seychelles.
Description
The trunk features aerial prop roots. The leaves are linear and spi ...
''.[ The broad-billed parrot and other extinct Mascarene birds, such as the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire could only reach seeds at low heights, and were therefore probably important seed-dispeersers, able to destroy the largest seeds among the Mascarene flora.]
On the basis of radiograph
Radiography is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of radiography include medical radiography ("diagnostic" and "therapeut ...
s, Holyoak claimed that the mandible
In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...
of the broad-billed parrot was weakly constructed and suggested that it would have fed on soft fruits rather than hard seeds. As evidence, he pointed out that the internal trabeculae
A trabecula (plural trabeculae, from Latin for "small beam") is a small, often microscopic, tissue element in the form of a small beam, strut or rod that supports or anchors a framework of parts within a body or organ. A trabecula generally has ...
were widely spaced, that the upper bill was broad whereas the palatines
Palatines (german: Pfälzer), also known as the Palatine Dutch, are the people and princes of Palatinates ( Holy Roman principalities) of the Holy Roman Empire. The Palatine diaspora includes the Pennsylvania Dutch and New York Dutch.
In 1709 ...
were narrow, and the fact that no preserved upper rostrum
Rostrum may refer to:
* Any kind of a platform for a speaker:
**dais
**pulpit
* Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects
* Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ships
* Ros ...
had been discovered, which he attributed to its delicateness. The British ornithologist George A. Smith, however, pointed out that the four genera Holyoak used as examples of "strong jawed" parrots based on radiographs, ''Cyanorhamphus'', '' Melopsittacus'', ''Neophema
The genus ''Neophema'' is an Australian genus with six or seven species. They are small, basically dull green parrots differentiated by patches of other colours, and are commonly known as grass parrots. The genus has some sexual dichromatism, wi ...
'' and '' Psephotus'', actually have weak jaws in life, and that the morphologies cited by Holyoak do not indicate strength. Hume pointed out in 2007 that the mandible morphology of the broad-billed parrot is comparable to that of the largest living parrot, the hyacinth macaw, which cracks open palm nuts with ease. It is therefore probable that the broad-billed parrot fed in the same manner.
The Brazilian ornithologist Carlos Yamashita suggested in 1997 that macaws once depended on now-extinct South American megafauna to eat fruits and excrete the seeds, and that they later relied on domesticated cattle to do this. Similarly, in Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...
the palm cockatoo feeds on undigested seeds from cassowary
Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bones) and are native to the tropical fore ...
droppings.[ Yamashita also suggested that the abundant '' Cylindraspis'' tortoises and dodos performed the same function on Mauritius, and that the broad-billed parrot, with its macaw-like beak, depended on them to obtain cleaned seeds.]
Extinction
Though Mauritius had previously been visited by Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
vessels in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
and Portuguese ships between 1507 and 1513, they did not settle on the island. The Dutch Empire acquired the island in 1598, renaming it after the Dutch stadtholder Maurice of Nassau
Maurice of Orange ( nl, Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was ''stadtholder'' of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince o ...
, and it was used from then on for the provisioning of trade vessels of the Dutch East India Company. To the Dutch sailors who visited Mauritius from 1598 and onwards, the fauna was mainly interesting from a culinary standpoint. Of the eight or so parrot species endemic to the Mascarenes, only the echo parakeet
The echo parakeet (''Psittacula eques'') is a species of parrot endemic to the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and formerly Réunion. It is the only living native parrot of the Mascarene Islands; all others have become extinct due to human activ ...
of Mauritius has survived. The others were likely all made extinct by a combination of excessive hunting and deforestation.[
Because of its poor flying ability, large size and possible ]island tameness
Island tameness is the tendency of many populations and species of animals living on isolated islands to lose their wariness of potential predators, particularly of large animals. The term is partly synonymous with ecological naïveté, which also ...
, the broad-billed parrot was easy prey for sailors who visited Mauritius, and their nests would have been extremely vulnerable to predation
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
by introduced crab-eating macaques and rats. Various sources indicate the bird was aggressive, which may explain why it held out so long against introduced animals after all. The bird is believed to have become extinct by the 1680s, when the palms it may have sustained itself on were harvested on a large scale. Unlike other parrot species, which were often taken as pets
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...
by sailors, there are no records of broad-billed parrots being transported from Mauritius either live or dead, perhaps because of the stigma associated with ravens. The birds would not in any case have survived such a journey if they refused to eat anything but seeds.[Cheke and Hume (2008). p. 38.]
References
Works cited
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Broad-Billed Parrot
Psittacinae
Extinct birds of Indian Ocean islands
Birds of Mauritius
Parrots of Africa
Extinct animals of Africa
Extinct flightless birds
Bird extinctions since 1500
Birds described in 1866
Extinct animals of Mauritius
Species endangered by invasive species
Species made extinct by human activities