| Nelepsittacus Temporal range:
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Family: | Strigopidae |
| Genus: | †Nelepsittacus Worthy, Tennyson, Scoffeld 2011 |
| Species | |
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N. daphneleeae | |
Nelepsittacus is a genus of extinct New Zealand parrots that is closely related to the genus Nestor (the living kākā and kea). It consists of four species, of which three have been named so far. The species are all known from the early Miocene Saint Bathans Fauna from the Lower Bannockburn Formation in Otago in New Zealand.
Features in their skeletons, namely the coracoid, humerus, tibiotarsus, and tarsometatarsus, that they share only with the Nestor parrots link them to that genus.[1][2]
Flora from the Saint Bathans fauna fossil beds indicate these parrots were found in a subtropical rainforest habitat. Following the early to mid Miocene, there was a drop in temperature, which led to a loss of local flora and fauna.[1] This loss of native Nelepsittacus parrots likely spurred the proliferation of Cyanoramphus parrots, a more recent migrant from the southwest Pacific.[3]
The largest known fossil species of parrot, Heracles inexpectatus, was described in 2019 from bones also identified as early Miocene St Bathans fauna. The generic epithet Heracles was named as an allusion to this genus, in one mythic tradition the Greek hero Herakles slew the king Neleus.[4]
- ^ a b Worthy, Trevor H.; Tennyson, Alan J. D.; Scofield, R. Paul (2011). "An early Miocene diversity of parrots (Aves, Strigopidae, Nestorinae) from New Zealand". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (5): 1102–16. Bibcode:2011JVPal..31.1102W. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.595857. S2CID 86361015.
- ^ Leo Joseph, Alicia Toon, Erin E. Schirtzinger, Timothy F. Wright & Richard Schodde. (2012) A revised nomenclature and classification for family-group taxa of parrots (Psittaciformes). Zootaxa 3205: 26–40
- ^ Kearvell, J.C., Grant, A.; Boon, Wee-Ming. (March 2003). "The orange-fronted parakeet (Cyanoramphus malherbi) is a distinct species: A review of recent research into its taxonomy and systematic relationship within the genus Cyanoramphus". Notornis. 50. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Worthy, Trevor H.; Hand, Suzanne J.; Archer, Michael; Schofield, R. Paul; De Pietri, Vanesa L. (2019). "Evidence for a giant parrot from the early Miocene of New Zealand". Biology Letters. 15 (8). doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0467. PMC 6731479. PMID 31387471.