Giant Heracles parrot fossils identified ten years after discovery

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Image credit: Trevor Worthy (2009) - L-R: Arthur White, Paul Scofield (co-author) and Aaron Camens

New Zealand is renowned for its large birds, and a newly identified fossil firmly secures the country as a home of the giants.

Two bones of the giant ‘Heracles’ parrot have been identified among excavations from a fossil bed in St Bathans in New Zealand’s Otago region.

The mammoth of a bird would have stood 80cm and weighed approximately 7 kilograms.

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