Tired And Shagged Out After A Prolonged Squawk

More about Norwegian Blue Parrots of Monty Python fame…turn out there actual used to be some: Norwegian Blue parrot really DID exist - but now they are all 'stiff, bereft of life and ex-parrots'

Dr David Waterhouse, a fossil expert and Python fan, has found that parrots not only lived in Scandinavia 55million years ago, but probably evolved there before spreading into the southern hemisphere.

His discovery was based on a preserved wing bone of a previously unknown species, given the scientific name Mopsitta Tanta - and now nicknamed the Norwegian Blue.

…

Dr Waterhouse, 29, said of Mopsitta Tanta: "Obviously, we were dealing with a bird that is bereft of life, but the tricky bit was establishing it was a parrot."

He was studying for a PhD at the University of Dublin in 2005 when he visited a museum in Jutland and spotted a fossilised 2in-long humerus - appropriately enough, the funny bone - among bird remains which had been found near an open-cast mine.

Research has now confirmed the bone was part of an upper wing from a bird in the parrot family. Although the mine was in Denmark, the birds would also have lived in what is now Norway.

Dr Waterhouse, now assistant curator of natural history at the Norfolk Museums Service, said: "All that remained was a single upper wing bone, but it contained characteristic features that showed it was clearly from a member of the parrot family, about the size of a yellow-crested cockatoo.

"It isn't as unbelievable as you might think that a parrot was found so far north.

"When Mopsitta was alive, most of northern Europe was experiencing a warm period, with a large shallow tropical lagoon covering much of Germany, South-East England and Denmark.

I've got further dialogue going through my head:

"A parrot? In Scandinavia?"

"Well, it probably escaped from a zoo."

"Isn't very likely…."

(As I clearly stated in an earlier post…I'm a bit of a dork.)

This Isn’t Important

As Gaius seems to have gone off someplace (possibly to help OJ Simpson track down the real killer), I feel I should post something here.  Unfortunately, most of my blogging of late has involved calling people names (I know, I know…I should know better.)

I do have something fun for some people.  If you enjoy irony and bitter sarcasm combined with statistics and an academic free for all (and who doesn't?), then you will enjoy Roger Pielke's devastating take down of a scientific methodology challenged colleague. 

It begins:

In his latest essay on my stupidity, climate modeler James Annan made the helpful suggestion that I consult a "a numerate undergraduate to explain it to [me]." So I looked outside my office, where things are quiet out on the quad this time of year, but as luck would have it, I did find a young lady named Megan, who just happened to be majoring in mathematics who agreed to help me overcome my considerable ignorance.

From there things get hysterical.

 O.K., hysterical if you are a bit of a dork.