Abstract
The previous report of the presence of lovebirds (Agapornis) at the Plio-Pleistocene Kromdraai B fossil locality is confirmed by the identification of a humerus from Member 3. That fossil specimen differs from extant lovebird species in morphology, and its slightly smaller size indicates that it likely represents an extinct taxon. This lovebird specimen is likely from the early Pleistocene (younger than 1.95 Myr) and appears to have been deposited around the same time as the fossil hominid specimens that have been uncovered at the site. The modern preference of lovebirds for a wide variety of wooded and forested habitats adds support to the mammalian-based idea that the palaeohabitat around Kromdraai B where Australopithecus robustus lived in the early Pleistocene was a mosaic that included wooded or forested habitats.
Highlights
The fossil record of parrots in Africa is poorly known and is mostly represented by undescribed material from the Pliocene Olduvai Bed I, Tanzania,[1] Miocene Varswater Formation, South Africa,[2] and Plio-Pleistocene Kromdraai B, South Africa.[3]
Institutional abbreviations: KB, Kromdraai B collection housed at the Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, South Africa; MVZ, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.; NMB, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa; TM, Ornithology Collection, Transvaal Museum; ZO, Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town
A recently identified humerus from the Transvaal Museum Kromdraai B collections appears to represent a small species of lovebird and confirms the presence of that taxon in the early Pleistocene of South Africa
Summary
A lovebird (Psittaciformes: Agapornis) from the PlioPleistocene Kromdraai B locality, South Africa. That fossil specimen differs from extant lovebird species in morphology, and its slightly smaller size indicates that it likely represents an extinct taxon. This lovebird specimen is likely from the early Pleistocene (younger than 1.95 Myr) and appears to have been deposited around the same time as the fossil hominid specimens that have been uncovered at the site. Institutional abbreviations: KB, Kromdraai B collection housed at the Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, South Africa; MVZ, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.; NMB, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa; TM, Ornithology Collection, Transvaal Museum; ZO, Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town
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