The
holotype specimen,
NMS.Z.2021.40.38, was discovered in 1991 by Michael Daniels in layers of the
London Clay Formation (Walton Member), dated to the early
Ypresian, which is located near
Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, England. This specimen consists of the skull, the left
quadrate, several vertebrae, the left
coracoid, a partial left and right
humerus, a partial left
ulna, a right
radius, a right and partial left
carpometacarpus, the pelvis, a partial right
femur, a right
tibiotarsus, a partial left and right
tarsometatarsus, and pedal
phalanges. The fossil material, particularly the nearly-complete skull, closely resembles bones of the contemporary related
Parapsittacopes. A preliminary description of the fossil material was published by German paleontologist
Gerald Mayr and
Michael Daniels in 1998. In 2022, Gerald Mayr and British zoologist
Andrew C. Kitchener described Psittacomimus eos, a new genus and species of psittacopedid, based on these fossil remains. The
generic name, "
Psittacomimus", combines the
Greek word "μῖμος" ("mimos"), meaning "imitator", with the name of the extant parrot
Psittacus, in reference to the similarity of
Psittacomimus with
psittaciforms. The
specific name, "
eos", references the discovery of the fossils in Eocene-aged sediments. Additional bones discovered at the same locality were also assigned to
Psittacomimus as referred specimens. == Classification ==