''Heracles inexpectatus'' is a giant fossil parrot species from
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, assigned to a monotypic genus ''Heracles'', that lived during the early
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
approximately 16 to 19 million years ago. The species was described from two tibiotarsus fossils discovered in 2008 at
Saint Bathans
St Bathans, formerly named Dunstan Creek, is a former gold and coal mining town in Central Otago, New Zealand. The settlement was a centre of the Otago Gold Rush, but mining has since long ceased. It is now largely a holiday retreat due to the p ...
,
Otago
Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...
, New Zealand.
It is believed that the species stood up to 90 cm (2 ft 11 in) tall and weighed approximately 7 kg (15 lb).
Initial analysis suggests that this parrot is from the order Psittaciforme
and from the superfamily
Strigopoidea
The New Zealand parrot family, Strigopidae,Nestoridae and Strigopidae are described in the same article, Bonaparte, C.L. (1849) ''Conspectus Systematis Ornithologiae''. Therefore, under rules of the ICZN, the first reviser determines priority, ...
, which consists of three confirmed primitive genera of parrots: ''
Nestor'' (kea and kaka), ''
Strigops'' (kakapo) and the fossil ''
Nelepsittacus''. It may have been the ancestor of the
kakapo.
The species was likely flightless, and its robust beak could crack open more than the conventional parrot foods of fruit, nuts, and berries. Like the
kakapo, ''Heracles'' may have used its strong beak to climb trees. It shared its environment with five other species of parrot in the genus ''Nelepsittacus'', as well as dozens of other bird species in the
St Bathans Fauna
The St Bathans fauna is found in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group of Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It comprises a suite of fossilised prehistoric animals from the late Early Miocene (Altonian) period, w ...
. ''Heracles inexpectatus'' is the largest parrot known to have existed. Media releases described the new species as the "Hercules parrot" and reported the nickname given by the palaeontologist
Mike Archer of "Squawkzilla".
Taxonomy
The description of a new species and genus was published in 2019, emerging from research undertaken by
Trevor Worthy
Trevor Henry Worthy (born 3 January 1957) is an Australia-based paleozoologist from New Zealand, known for his research on moa and other extinct vertebrates.
Biography
Worthy grew up in Broadwood, Northland, and went to Whangarei Boys' High S ...
,
Suzanne Hand
Suzanne J. Hand (born 1955) is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, a teacher of geology and biology, who has a special interest in vertebrate palaeontology and modern mammals. Her research has been published in over a hund ...
,
Mike Archer, R. Paul Scofield and Vanesa L. De Pietri. Alan Tennyson's and Te Papa's key role in this discovery was later acknowledged in a correction published in 2021.
''Heracles inexpectatus'' was described from two incomplete
tibiotarsi
The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia.
A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These sma ...
(leg bones), a left one and a right one, probably from the same individual, that where discovered in 2008.
The left bone was nominated as the holotype. The fossils were originally presumed to be from an eagle, but were re-inspected after a PhD student at
Flinders University
Flinders University is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across 11 locations in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of British navigator ...
noted that the bone morphology was significantly different from typical eagles.
The etymology of the generic epithet ''Heracles'' alludes to the earlier naming of a genus, ''
Nelepsittacus'', also describing St Bathan Fauna, which referred to a mythic king
Neleus
Neleus (; Ancient Greek: Νηλεύς) was a mythological king of Pylos. In some accounts, he was also counted as an Argonaut instead of his son, Nestor.
Family
Neleus was the son of Poseidon and Tyro. According to Pausanias, Neleus was the so ...
who was slain by the Greek hero
Herakles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
, who also slew all of his sons, save for Nestor. The authors distinguished the new species with the epithet ''inexpectatus'' to describe their astonishment at the unexpected discovery of an enormous parrot-like bird from the Miocene epoch.
Description
The largest known species of Psittaciformes, which comprises the modern parrots and cockatoos, it is estimated to have been around one meter in height, with a body mass of seven kilograms, and presumed to have been flightless, terrestrial and perhaps arboreal.
Island gigantism
Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general "i ...
has been observed in other orders of birds, especially in New Zealand and Fiji, but this species exceeds the proportions of any extant or fossil species of the parrot order. The previously known record for size was the arboreal and nocturnal ''
Strigops habroptilus'', the kakapo of modern New Zealand.
The fossilised tarsi were deposited in a rich and mixed assemblage of animal remains, including other large species of
Aves
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
such as the
moa
Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand.
The term has also come to be used for chicken in many Polynesian cultures and is found in the names of many chicken recipes, such as
Kale moa and Moa Samoa.
Moa or MOA may also refe ...
,
anatid
The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating ...
s and an eagle, the bones of which are usually fragmented. The type material of ''Heracles inexpectatus'' is the longest evidence obtained at the site, which rarely produces fossil longer than 100 millimeters. The time of deposition is determined as sixteen to nineteen million years ago, in an area associated with a freshwater
lacustrine
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
system, in wet forest dominated by cycad, palm and casuarina species, along with a diverse array of other avian fauna. The species appears to have occupied a niche in the region's ecology, unfilled by mammals, that favoured the
insular gigantism
Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general Fos ...
exhibited by some other avian species of the region.
Environment
The climate in New Zealand was similar to nowadays (temperate) and may have been subject to periodic droughts.
Summer season (December to February) had average daytime temperatures between 20 to 25 °C (68 - 77 °F) and a humidity around 80%.
Winter season (June to August) had average daytime temperatures ranging from 12 to 16 °C (53 - 61 °F) and a humidity around 67%.
Archeological
The tibia fossils where discovered in trench excavation of the foot of hills 50 meters east from river bank of the Manuherikia River in Home Hills Station, Otago, NZ.
These fossils where collected on 14 of January in 2008.
References
External links
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q66305630
Fossil taxa described in 2019
Extinct birds of New Zealand
Fossils of New Zealand
Endemic fauna of New Zealand
Miocene birds
Psittaciformes
Endemic birds of New Zealand