''Primobucco'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of bird placed in its own family, Primobucconidae. The type species, ''Primobucco mcgrewi'', lived during the

Lower 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 ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It was initially described by American paleo-ornithologist

Pierce Brodkorb William Pierce Brodkorb (September 29, 1908, Chicago – July 18, 1992, Gainesville, Florida) was an American ornithologist and paleontologist. Interested in birds since childhood, he was taught to prepare birds at the age of 16. Later, he rec ...

in 1970, from a fossil right wing, and thought to be an early

puffbird The puffbirds and their relatives in the near passerine family Bucconidae are tropical tree-dwelling insectivorous birds that are found from South America up to Mexico. Together with their closest relatives, the jacamars, they form a divergent li ...

. However, the discovery of a further 12 fossils in 2010 indicate that it is instead an early type of

roller Roller may refer to: Birds *Roller, a bird of the family Coraciidae * Roller (pigeon), a domesticated breed or variety of pigeon Devices * Roller (agricultural tool), a non-powered tool for flattening ground * Road roller, a vehicle for compa ...

. Related fossils from the European Messel deposits have been assigned to the two species ''P. perneri'' and ''P. frugilegus''. Two specimens of ''P. frugilegus'' have been found with seeds in the area of their digestive tract, which suggests that these birds were more omnivorous than the exclusively predaceous modern rollers.

References

Eocene birds Coraciiformes Paleogene birds of North America Prehistoric bird genera {{Paleo-bird-stub

See also

References