Ancient Parrot Bone Unearthed In New Mexico Is From Lost American Parrot

Ancient parrot bones are relatively common finds in archaeological sites in the American Southwest. Many have been identified as coming from scarlet macaws, Ara macao, whose geographic distribution today includes tropical rainforests and savannahs in the southern portions of Mexico and throughout Central America — which nowhere are closer than 1,100 km (683.5 miles) away. Based on this evidence, it is argued that these macaws were relocated by a thriving parrot trade and kept as status symbols or for cultural or ceremonial purposes, or bred locally for these purposes by Indigenous Peoples (<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2018/08/13/have-we-found-the-first-parrot-breeders-in-north-america/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">ref</a>). So it came as a surprise when an ancient bone unearthed decades ago in a New Mexico archaeological site was identified as coming from another, much more unusual species: thick-billed parrots, Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha. Unlike the tropical macaws, thick-billed parrots dwell in high elevation old-growth conifer forests. Further, this wasn’t just a single discovery: skeletal remains of thick-billed parrots have been found at other archaeological sites in Arizona and New Mexico that have been dated to &sim;600–1400 C.E. <a href="https://medium.com/gardening-birding-and-outdoor-adventure/ancient-parrot-bone-unearthed-in-new-mexico-is-from-lost-american-parrot-72b6f4948914">Website</a>