Xenopsitta is a prehistoric parrot genus known from a fossil tarsometatarsus in early Miocene deposits at Merkur, in western Bohemia of the Czech Republic, and described by Jiri Mlikovsky in 1998. The type species is Xenopsitta fejfari. The generic name derives from the Greek for "foreign" or "strange", referring to the apparent scarcity of parrots in the Miocene of Europe, and a diminutive form of the Latin for "parrot". The specific epithet honours Czech palaeontologist Oldrich Fejfar. It was described as a small parrot with a short and robust tarsometatarsus resembling the tarsometatarsi of large African parrots in the genera Psittacus, Poicephalus and Coracopsis.[1]

Xenopsitta
Temporal range: Early Miocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittacidae
Tribe: Psittacini
Genus: Xenopsitta
Mlikovsky, 1998
Species:
X. fejfari
Binomial name
Xenopsitta fejfari
Mlikovsky, 1998

References

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  1. ^ Mlikovsky, Jiri (1998). "A new parrot (Aves: Psittacidae) from the early Miocene of the Czech Republic" (PDF). Acta Soc. Zool. Bohem. 62: 335–341.