Specimens
About 720 skins and 16 skeletons are housed in museums around the world. In 1977, ecologist Daniel McKinley accepted 20 of the 49 supposed egg specimens as certainly and 7 as probably correctly assigned to this species. Five eggs collected in Florida on April 30, 1927, were controversially attributed to this species (FSM 87234 - 3 eggs - and 89434 - 2 eggs). These are not accepted as valid by McKinley based on their small size and early date of collection, but molecular analysis could possibly determine whether these are in fact eggs of Carolina Parakeets.
A fossil parrot, Conuropsis fratercula, was described based on a single humerus from the Miocene Sheep Creek Formation (possibly late Hemingfordian, c.16 mya, possibly later) of Snake Creek, Nebraska. However, it is not altogether certain that this species is correctly assigned to Conuropsis, but some authors consider it a paleosubspecies of the Carolina Parakeet. This is almost certainly erroneous given the long distance in time, and probably based on a misunderstanding of the original description. Therein, C. fratercula is called a "new subspecies" but fratercula is consistently applied as a species-level name throughout the publication, and the fossil is correctly referenced thus in the discussion:
"The present species is of peculiar interest as it represents the first known parrotlike bird to be described as a fossil from North America."(Wetmore 1926; italics added)
Read more about this topic: Carolina Parakeet
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