Rhynchopsitta, Bonaparte, 1854

Smith, Brian Tilston, Thom, Gregory & Joseph, Leo, 2024, Revised Evolutionary And Taxonomic Synthesis For Parrots (Order: Psittaciformes) Guided By Phylogenomic Analysis, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2024 (468), pp. 1-87 : 39

Rhynchopsitta

Rhynchopsitta comprises two predominantly green, massively billed species ( R. pachyrhyncha and R. terrisi ) that occur in the high-elevation pine forests of Mexico, and formerly the southwestern United States. The split between R. terrisi of the Sierra Madre Oriental and R. pachyrhyncha of the Sierra Madre Occidental was dated to 0.5 Mya (0.2–0.8). Despite their relatively recent origin, both taxa are independently evolving. We do not support proposals to treat terrisi as a subspecies of pachyrhyncha ( Urantowka et al., 2014b) . This young age could reflect a general pattern identified in temperate North American birds that have shallower origins in comparison with tropical species, presumably due to higher extinction rates ( Smith et al., 2017). This scenario is consistent with the long branch Rhynchopsitta was placed on. Alternatively, the shallow divergence could reflect a recent colonization of the highland pine forests of Mexico, indicating there has not been enough time to accumulate a deep divergence between the taxa.