Heracles inexpectatus

Heracles inexpectatus is a giant fossil parrot species from New Zealand, assigned to a monotypic genus Heracles, that lived during the early Miocene approximately 16 to 19 million years ago. The species was described from two tibiotarsus fossils discovered in 2008 at Saint Bathans, Otago, New Zealand. It is believed that the species stood up to 90 cm tall and weighed approximately 7 kg (15 lb). Initial analysis suggests that this parrot is from the order Psittaciformes and from the superfamily Strigopoidea, which consists of three confirmed primitive genera of parrots: Nestor, Strigops (kākāpō) and the fossil Nelepsittacus. It may have been the ancestor of the kākāpō.

Heracles inexpectatus

Apokryltaros · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
HeraclesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At most 2.8 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 18.7 Mya and 15.9 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Miocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiocene19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19.2 Mya15.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Heracles inexpectatus on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Bannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°E

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The named rock units Heracles inexpectatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Heracles inexpectatus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Heracles inexpectatus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from that site.

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Heracles inexpectatus, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Heracles inexpectatus

Credit
Apokryltaros
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Heracles inexpectatus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHeracles through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Worthy et al. 2019