Lophopsittacus mauritianus
The broad-billed parrot or raven parrot is a large extinct parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius. The species was first referred to as the "Indian raven" in Dutch ships' journals from 1598 onwards. Only a few brief contemporary descriptions and three depictions are known. It was first scientifically described from a subfossil mandible in 1866, but this was not linked to the old accounts until the rediscovery of a detailed 1601 sketch that matched both the subfossils and the accounts. It is unclear what other species it was most closely related to, but it has been classified as a member of the tribe Psittaculini, along with other Mascarene parrots. It had similarities with the Rodrigues parrot, and may have been closely related.
Joris Joostensz Laerle (attributed) · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- broad-billed parrotPBDB
- Sits inside
- LophopsittacusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Time the record covers
At most 12 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
4 occurrences of Lophopsittacus mauritianus on record, most of them in the Holocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Holocene100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Lophopsittacus mauritianus and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Lophopsittacus mauritianus and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
47 taxa- Aphanapteryx bonasia3 sites
- Circus maillardi3 sites
- Fulica newtonii3 sites
- Nesoenas mayeri3 sites
- Otus sauzieri3 sites
- Alectroenas nitidissimus2 sites
- Hypsipetes olivaceus2 sites
- Lalage typica2 sites
- Lophopsittacus bensoni2 sites
- Nycticorax mauritianus2 sites
- Phoenicopterus roseus2 sites
- Raphus cucullatus2 sites
- Alexandrinus echo1 site
- Allopeas1 site
- Alopochen mauritianus1 site
- Anas theodori1 site
- Bulinus1 site
- Columba thiriouxi1 site
- Cryptopsar ischyrhynchus1 site
- Cyclotopsis1 site
- Cylindraspis inepta1 site
- Cylindraspis triserrata1 site
- Egretta garzetta dimorpha1 site
- Foudia rubra1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Lophopsittacus mauritianus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- Mid-Holocene vertebrate bone Concentration-Lagerstätte on oceanic island Mauritius provides a window into the ecosystem of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus)1
- Reappraisal of the parrots (Aves: Psittacidae) from the Mascarene Islands, with comments on their ecology, morphology, and affinities1
- On additional bones of the Dodo and other extinct birds of Mauritius obtained by Mr. Théodore Sauzier1
- Evidence of a species, perhaps extinct, of a large parrot (Psittacus mauritianus, Owen), contemporary with the Dodo in the island of Mauritius1
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Lophopsittacus mauritianus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Joris Joostensz Laerle (attributed)
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Lophopsittacus mauritianus was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itLophopsittacus through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Owen 1866)