''Primobucco'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce 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, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. 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 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 lineage within th ...

. 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, an element of a rolling-element bearing * Roller, used in rolling (metalworking) * Roller, in a ...

. 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