16-million-year-old parrot fossil found in Siberia

A 16-million-year-old parrot fossil was found in Siberia.

A recent archaeological discovery suggests that parrots once may have lived in Siberia. The presence of the parrot bone fragments suggests that tropical birds were at one time widespread in Eurasia.

Discovered by researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, this fossil once belonged to a bird who lived over 16 million years ago. Today it’s more common to find parrots in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions.

Dr. Nikita Zelenev, who released his findings in Biology Letters, states: “The presence of parrots as far north as Siberia supports their broad geographical distribution in Asia . . . and may have implications for the historical biogeography of Psittacoidea.”

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