An international team of paleontologists unearthed fossilized bones of a new species of lovebird from three caves in the South African UNESCO World Heritage site known as the Cradle of Humankind.
If you love parrots, then you will be excited to learn that a new species of lovebird has been unearthed in the Cradle of Humankind (ref). The Cradle of Humankind is a paleoanthropological site located about 50 km (31 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, in the Gauteng province of South Africa (Figure 1). This World Heritage Site is so named because it is home to the largest known concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. It occupies 47,000 hectares (180 square miles) and contains a complex system of limestone caves.
Bird fossils are very fragile so they often are crushed into fragments that must be meticulously re-assembled for study or they are comprised of just one specimen, but remarkably, this new lovebird species is represented by 96 complete and sub-complete bones from Kromdraai, Cooper’s Cave and Swartkrans. These lovebird fossils included all its major wing bones (humerus, ulna, and carpometacarpus) and the tarsometatarsus, together with a fragmentary mandible and coracoid (Figure 2).
The newly-identified species, which now is known by the scientific name Agapornis longipes, lived in South Africa approximately 2.5 million years ago. Its fossils were discovered in Kromdraai, Cooper’s Cave, and Swartkrans, a trio of limestone caves better known for their ancient hominin remains and their abundance of non-hominin fauna.
“The three fossil sites of Swartkrans, Cooper’s Cave and Kromdraai are a few hundred meters from each other, located in the southern part of the Cradle, respectively 1 km east and ca. 1.5 km northeast of the Sterkfontein Caves,” the international collaboration of paalaeontologists wrote in their report.
Based on the humerus-to-tarsometatarsus (forearm-to-lower leg) length ratios for all living and ancient lovebirds described so far, these fossils indicate Agapornis longipes is one of the smallest of all lovebirds yet described (Figure 3).
Agapornis longipes is distinguished from the nine living species of lovebirds and from its ancient extinct relatives, Agapornis atlanticus and Agapornis attenbouroughi, by several morphological characters and especially by the smallest humerus/tarsometatarsus ratio of all Agapornis species.
Despite its small size, Agapornis longipes has long legs — proportionately the longest of all known species of Agapornis.
“The elongated feet of Agapornis longipes could relate to the feeding adaptation of this extinct species,” wrote the study authors.
“In fact, the modern species with the lower humerus/tarsometatarsus ratios typically collect food on the ground, while the others also collect seeds or fruits from the trees.”
Agapornis longipes probably relied on its longer legs to stay safe whilst feeding on grass seeds on the ground in the tall and dense grassland that were characteristic of the Cradle of Humankind during the Plio-Pleistocene transition and the Early Pleistocene.
“All but one Agapornis species are grass seed eaters and secondarily fruit eaters, and are generally related to the presence of grassland, permanent water resources and tall trees that provide either natural cavities or holes excavated by other birds such as woodpeckers or barbets,” the study authors noted.
That said, the present-day landscape and environment in this part of South Africa, and particularly in the Cradle of Humankind, is not markedly different from what it was during the Early Pleistocene. Thus, the extinction of lovebirds from this region during the Pleistocene was probably related to a change in microclimatic conditions or to the extinction of specific food resources rather than to the change of general environmental conditions.
Source:
Marco Pavia, José Braga, Massimo Delfino, Lazarus Kgasi, Albrecht Manegold, Christine Steininger, Bernhard Zipfel, and Aurore Val (2024). A new species of Lovebird (Aves, Psittaculidae, Agapornis) from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Cradle of Humankind (Gauteng, South Africa), Geobios | doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2024.05.006
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