page_title: Newton's parakeet
section_title: Evolution
hierarchical_section_title: Newton's parakeet / Taxonomy / Evolution
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue – Rodriguez Ring-necked Parakeet and Broad-billed Parrot. Wildlife park, The statue park of extinct animals, Miskolc, Hungary Magyar: Szobor – Rodriguezi örvös arapapagáj és Szélescsőrű papagáj. Vadaspark, Kihalt állatok szoborparkja, Miskolc, Magyarország
context_page_description: Newton's parakeet, also known as the Rodrigues parakeet or Rodrigues ring-necked parakeet, is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Rodrigues in the western Indian Ocean. Several of its features diverged from related species, indicating long-term isolation on Rodrigues and subsequent adaptation. The rose-ringed parakeet of the same genus is a close relative and probable ancestor. Newton's parakeet may itself have been ancestral to the endemic parakeets of nearby Mauritius and Réunion.
  Around 40 centimetres long, Newton's parakeet was roughly the size of a rose-ringed parakeet. Its plumage was mostly greyish or slate blue in colour, which is unusual in Psittacula, a genus containing mostly green species. The male had stronger colours than the female and possessed a reddish instead of black beak, but details of a mature male's appearance are uncertain; only one male specimen is known, and it is believed to be immature. Mature males might have possessed red patches on the wing like the related Alexandrine parakeet. Both sexes had a black collar running from the chin to the nape, but this was clearer in the male.
context_section_description: Based on morphological features, the Alexandrine parakeet (Psittacula eupatria) has been proposed as the founder population for all Psittacula species on Indian Ocean islands, with new populations settling during the species' southwards colonisation from its native South Asia. Features of that species gradually disappear in species further away from its range. Subfossil remains of Newton's parakeet show that it differed from other Mascarene Psittacula species in some osteological features, but also had similarities, such as a reduced sternum, which suggests a close relationship. Skeletal features indicate an especially close relationship with the Alexandrine parakeet and the rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri), but the many derived features of Newton's parakeet indicates it had long been isolated on Rodrigues.
  Many endemic Mascarene birds, including the dodo, are descended from South Asian ancestors, and the English palaeontologist Julian Hume has proposed that this may also be the case for all parrots there. Sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene, so it was possible for species to colonise some of these less isolated islands. Although most extinct parrot species of the Mascarenes are poorly known, subfossil remains show that they shared common features such as enlarged heads and jaws, reduced pectoral bones, and robust leg bones. Hume has suggested that they all have a common origin in the radiation of the tribe Psittaculini, members of which are known as Psittaculines, basing this theory on morphological features and the fact that Psittacula parrots have managed to colonise many isolated islands in the Indian Ocean. The Psittaculini could have invaded the area several times, as many of the species were so specialised that they may have evolved significantly on hotspot islands before the Mascarenes emerged from the sea. Other members of the genus Psittacula from the Mascarenes include the extant echo parakeet (Psittacula eques echo) of Mauritius, as well as the extinct Réunion parakeet (Psittacula eques eques), and Mascarene grey parakeet (Psittacula bensoni) of both Mauritius and Réunion.
  A 2011 genetic study of parrot phylogeny was unable to include Newton's parakeet, as no viable DNA could be extracted. A 2015 genetic study by Jackson et al. included viable DNA from the toe-pad of the female Newton's parakeet specimen. It was found to group within a clade of rose-ringed parakeet subspecies (from Asia and Africa), which it had diverged from 3.82 million years ago. Furthermore, Newton's parakeet appeared to be ancestral to the parakeets of Mauritius and Réunion. The cladogram accompanying the study is shown below:
caption: Statues in Hungary of Newton's parakeet and the also extinct broad-billed parrot of Mauritius
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