Hundreds of years ago, various species of Bullfinch songbirds
took flight and lived among the Azores archipelago, a group of nine major
islands in the Atlantic Ocean about 900 miles away from Portugal. A number
of the small bird species, known for their short and wide beak, were
wiped out following Portuguese colonization of
the archipelago in the 1400s. However, scientists recently found fossils of a
new species of the Bullfinch songbird in a 12,000-year-old volcano on the
Azores’ Graciosa Island.
An international team of researchers led by paleontologist
Josep Antoni Alcover, from the Mediterranean
Institute for Advanced Studies, discovered the bones of the new
extinct songbird species, Pyrrhula
crassa, while excavating an enclave where lava once flowed within the
volcano. Despite the small number of bones the scientists found, the remains
discovered were sufficiently distinctive enough for the researchers to classify
the songbird within its own unique species.
The report of the finding, published in the journal Zootaxa on Wednesday, focused specifically on
how the team analyzed morphology of the bird’s beak to determine the new
species—and its relatively large size. The researchers noted that
the Pyrrhula crassa skull
remains they found were significantly bigger than the skulls of other songbirds
that once roamed the Azores, and of current living species of the bird.
They also found the Pyrrhula crassa wing
length to be bigger than the average songbird, suggesting this may have allowed
it to fly in a way similar to that of larger birds living on São Miguel Island.
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