Mopsitta

Mopsitta Temporal range: Lower Eocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Subclass:	Neornithes
Infraclass:	Neoaves
Order:	Incertae sedis (see text)
Family:	Incertae sedis
Genus:	Mopsitta Waterhouse et al. 2008
Species:	M. tanta
Binomial name
Mopsitta tanta Waterhouse et al. 2008

Mopsitta is an extinct genus of bird from the Early Eocene of Denmark; its remains were recovered from the Fur Formation. Only one species is known, Mopsitta tanta, and all that was found of it to date (but see below) is a single humerus bone of rather large size. Although the phylogenetic position of genus is unclear, it was initially presumed to be phylogenetically closer to Recent Psittacidae than to other known Palaeogene psittaciforms and may, therefore, represent the oldest known crown-group parrot.^[1]

However, it was subsequently pointed out that the fossil lacks clear psittaciform (let alone psittacid) apomorphies. Following the discovery that the fossil ibis genus Rhynchaeites 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.

Reference

1. ^ Waterhouse, D.M.; Lindow, B.E.K.; Zelenkov, N.V. and Dyke, G.J. (2008). "Two new parrots (Psittaciformes) from the Lower Eocene Fur Formation of Denmark". Palaeontology 51 (3): 575–582. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00777.x. 

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