''Mopsitta tanta'' is an extinct

bird 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 ...

of uncertain taxonomic position from the

Early Eocene In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age or lowest stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by the Eocene Lutetian Age. The Ypresian i ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

; its remains were recovered from the Fur Formation. So far, the

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 several ...

and only known specimen is a single

humerus The humerus (; ) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a roun ...

bone of rather large size. Although the phylogenetic position of genus is unclear, it was initially presumed to be phylogenetically closer to Recent Psittacidae than to other known

Palaeogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...

psittaciforms and may, therefore, represent the oldest known

crown-group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...

parrot. However, further examination subsequently pointed out that the fossil lacks clear psittaciform (let alone psittacid)

apomorph In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

ies. Following the discovery that the fossil

ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word f ...

genus ''

Rhynchaeites ''Rhynchaeites'' is an extinct genus of Threskiornithidae related to modern ibises and has a single named species ''Rhynchaeites meselensis''. It lived in today's Germany during the mid-Eocene and its remains were found in the famous Messel pit. ...

'' also occurred in the Fur Formation, it was hypothesized that the ''"M. tanta"'' humerus actually belongs in that genus, being a better match (except in size) to the known ''Rhynchaeites'' remains than to any psittaciform fossil hitherto found.Mayr G. & Bertelli S. (2011)
"A record of Rhynchaeites (Aves, Threskiornithidae) from the early Eocene Fur Formation of Denmark, and the affinities of the alleged parrot ''Mopsitta''"
''Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments'' 91(3): p. 229-236. The new species has been nicknamed the Danish Blue Parrot in honor of the

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

“dead parrot” skit where Michael Palin claimed that a newly purchased “Norwegian Blue Parrot” was not “bleedin’ demised” as his disgruntled customer asserted, but was simply “shagged out following a prolonged squawk.”

References

https://grrlscientist.medium.com/monty-pythons-dead-parrot-discovered-efbdb2a8ff47 Prehistoric birds of Europe Eocene birds Prehistoric bird genera Fur Formation Extinct monotypic bird genera {{Paleo-bird-stub