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Parrot Evolution Map

The deeper map story is not just where parrots live now. It is how the order split into three major branches, how Gondwana and Zealandia shaped those branches, how Antarctica once worked like a corridor, and how barriers like Wallacea and the Andes changed the modern parrot world.

Tap A Deep-Time Zone

This map compresses the research into the major tectonic and biogeographic moves that shaped modern parrots.

The Three Superfamilies

Basal branch

Strigopoidea

The ancient New Zealand line: kakapo, kea, and kaka. This is the deepest surviving split in the parrot tree and one of the strongest reasons the map needed a New Zealand lane of its own.

Australasian branch

Cacatuoidea

The cockatoos, including the cockatiel. The research ties this branch strongly to Australasia, Miocene aridification, and the Wallacea boundary.

Global branch

Psittacoidea

The true parrots. This is the huge radiation that later spread across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, producing most of the parrot diversity people know today.

Timeline At A Glance

~82 Mya

Zealandia Split

The research aligns the earliest basal parrot split with the tectonic isolation of Zealandia, which frames the Strigopoidea story.

~54 Mya

Laurasian Stem Fossils

Europe and North America preserve important stem-parrot fossils, which is why the fossil puzzle is richer than a simple one-continent origin story.

~40.7 Mya

Cockatoo Divergence

The cockatoo branch separates from the true parrots and begins the more restricted Australasian story of the Cacatuoidea.

30-35 Mya

Afro-Neotropical Split

African and Neotropical true parrots separate, with Antarctic corridor logic helping explain the distribution before complete glaciation.

16-19 Mya

Heracles In New Zealand

The giant extinct parrot Heracles highlights how unusual and evolutionarily rich the Strigopoidea lane really is.

Miocene

Andes And Amazonia

The Andes uplift and Amazonian restructuring drive major diversification inside the New World true parrots, especially macaws and amazons.

Good Next Clicks

Origins World Map

Return to the modern native-range view when you want the simpler species-by-region map.

Parrot Library

Use the species library once the deep-time story makes you want the present-day bird pages.

Budgies And Parakeets

The current budgie lane is one of the best places to connect wild range, naming, and care back to evolutionary context.