Psittacopes
| Psittacopes Temporal range: Middle Eocene | |
|---|---|
| Fossil | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Incertae sedis |
| Family: | Psittacopedidae[1] |
| Genus: | Psittacopes Mayr & Daniels, 1998 |
| Species | |
|
P. lepidus Mayr & Daniels, 1998 | |
Psittacopes is an extinct genus of bird from Middle Eocene. One species is recorded from Messel, Germany (P. lepidus), and other three possible unnamed species are from London Clay, England. Its phylogenetic placement within Aves is uncertain; it was originally interpreted as a parrot, but the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Mayr (2015) recovered it as more closely related to the passerines and the extinct family Zygodactylidae.[1]
References
- 1 2 Gerald Mayr (2015). "A reassessment of Eocene parrotlike fossils indicates a previously undetected radiation of zygodactyl stem group representatives of passerines (Passeriformes)". Zoologica Scripta. in press. doi:10.1111/zsc.12128.
- Mayr, G. Paleogene Fossil Birds. Springer, 2009.
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