''Mopsitta tanta'' is an extinct

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

of uncertain taxonomic position from the

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

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

; its remains were recovered from the

Fur Formation The Fur Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian ( Lower Eocene Epoch, c. 56.0-54.5 Ma) age which crops out in the Limfjord region of northern Denmark from Silstrup via Mors and Fur to Ertebølle, and can be seen in many cliffs and ...

. So far, the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

and only known specimen is a single

humerus The humerus (; : humeri) 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 (bone), radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extrem ...

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

Psittacidae The Family (biology), family Psittacidae or holotropical parrots is one of three families of true parrots. It comprises the 12 species of subfamily Psittacinae (the Afrotropics, Afrotropical parrots) and 167 of subfamily Arinae (the New World or ...

than to other known

Palaeogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

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 ha ...

ies. Following the discovery that the fossil

ibis The ibis () (collective plural ibises; 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'' (Greek for "beak fossil") is an extinct genus of wading bird, a stem-group threshkiornithid, from the Eocene. It is one of the oldest members of the ibis family known from fossil remains. Taxonomy The type species, ''R. me ...

'' 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. The species has been nicknamed the "Danish Blue Parrot", or the "Norwegian Blue", in honor of the

Dead Parrot sketch The "Dead Parrot sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop sketch" or "Parrot sketch", is a sketch from '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'' about a non-existent species of parrot, called a "Norwegian Blue". A satire on poor cu ...

from ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, w ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1947047 Prehistoric birds of Europe Eocene birds Monotypic prehistoric bird genera Fur Formation