Worldâs largest parrot âSquawkzillaâ discovered
Palaeontologists from Australia and New Zealand have from the fossil record, and itâs a whopper.
The giant bird, named Heracles inexpectatus for its Herculean proportions, towered at one metre in height and weighed up to seven kilograms.
Thatâs 20 times heavier than an Australian magpie and double the size of the kÄkÄpĆâthe current chunky champion of parrotsâmaking âSquawkzillaâ the worldâs largest known parrot species.
âNew Zealand is well known for its giant birds,â says Flinders University Associate Professor Trevor Worthy. âBut until now, no-one has ever found an extinct giant parrotâanywhere.â
The team from Flinders University, UNSW Sydney and Canterbury Museum from a fossil site near St Bathans in Central Otago, New Zealand, in 2008.
âWe knew straight away it was an exciting new, big species,â says Associate Professor Worthy. But their initial thought was not of parrots: âIâd put the bones into the box that was labelled eagles, and then forgotten about them.â
It wasnât until years later that they realised the bones were something else entirely.
To figure out who the mysteriously large legs belonged to, the palaeontologists carefully examined distinctive bumps, scars and protrusions and used a process of elimination to narrow down the possibilities.
âWe go through and say, âIt's got this feature therefore it cannot be species XYZ,â and in the end we're left only with parrots,â explains Associate Professor Worthy. âThe size is extraordinary among parrots and for that reason, we didnât think of parrots first up.â
Meet Squawkzilla
So what was our feathered friend of mythic proportions like?
This big bird lived some 19 million years ago during the Miocene interval, when the islands of New Zealand were cloaked in lush subtropical forest.
âWe know from the pollen in the fossil leaves in associated deposits that there was a really high plant diversity,â says Associate Professor Worthy. This included some 60 species of fruit-bearing laurels, in addition to cycads and palm treesâa veritable feast for a hungry parrot.
But Squawkzillaâs diet may have been especially diverse.
âHeracles, as the largest parrot ever, no doubt with a massive parrot beak that could crack wide open anything it fancied, may well have dined on more than conventional parrot foods, perhaps even other parrots,â says Ÿ«¶«ÊÓÆ” Fellow Professor Mike Archer, from the UNSW Sydney Palaeontology, Geobiology and Earth Archives (PANGEA) Research Centre.
âIts rarity in the deposit is something we might expect if it was feeding higher up in the food chain,â he says.
Like its modern cousin, the kÄkÄpĆ, Squawkzilla may have stalked the forest floor instead of soaring through the treetops. âThis bird might well have not been a good flier, but it probably could still climb up a tree and clamber around,â explains Associate Professor Worthy.
Island of giants
New Zealand has been home to several giant avian species, including the emu-like moa, the huge Haastâs eagle, gargantuan geese, and adzebillsâsimilar to cranes.
The Heracles parrot is yet another example of island gigantismâa phenomenon where island species evolve to become significantly larger than their mainland counterparts. This occurs because a lack of large mammals can leave ecological niches available, says Associate Professor Worthy.
Other examples of gigantic island-dwelling birdsâall now extinctâinclude a huge pigeon from Fiji, massive ducks from Hawaii and the iconic dodo from Mauritius.
âWłóŸ±±ô±đ&ČÔČúČő±è;Heracles is one of the most spectacular birds we have found, no doubt there are many more unexpected species yet to be discovered in this most interesting deposit,â says Associate Professor Worthy.