Geoffroyus, Bonaparte, 1850

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 : 51

Geoffroyus

Geoffroyus are midsized parrots that are largely green with contrastingly colorful head plumage in two species and a distinctive blue nuchal collar in one. They occur in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. Traditionally, three species have been recognized: G. geoffroyi , G. simplex , and G. heteroclitus . Geoffroyus heteroclitus of the Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville Island, and the Solomon Islands has a subspecies on Rennell Island (G. h. hyacinthinus ) that differs in size and plumage color. Del Hoyo and Collar (2014) elevated it to species rank, but hyacinthinus was not included in our sampling. We found a deep divergence between G. geoffroyi and G. simplex / G. heteroclitus dating to 7.2 Mya (3.7–9.7; fig. 10). The subsequent split between G. simplex and G. heteroclitus was dated to 2.8 Mya (1.3–4; fig. 10). The underlying historical biogeography of Geoffroyus is unclear. We suggest that initial divergence between G. geoffroyi and the ancestor of G. simplex / G. heteroclitus likely occurred within New Guinea, and that subsequent dispersal out of New Guinea and into the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands could have been involved in the speciation of G. heteroclitus .