The archaeological site of Bonnell (LA 612) is significant as a Glencoe phase (A.D. 1200-1400) Jornada Mogollon settlement in the Sacramento Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. In a recent review of faunal remains recovered from the 1950s excavations, detailed comparative analysis demonstrates that an isolated tarsometatarsus represents Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha, the Thick-billed Parrot. Skeletal remains of Thickbills, morphologically distinct from macaws, are known from 10 archaeological

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... es in Arizona and New Mexico. Thick-billed Parrots are specialist pinecone feeders that inhabit temperate mountain forests in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. A review of the archaeological occurrences illustrates that six sites, including Bonnell, are located within or nearby pine forest habitats suitable for Thick-billed Parrot ecology. Another three sites are situated within arid environments, but contain clear evidence of prehistoric cultural utilization of forest resources. This biogeographic distribution, combined with evidence from extant ecology, historic occurrences, and reintroductions, demonstrates an association between the archaeological sites and viable Thick-bill habitats. Southwestern archaeological Thick-billed Parrots, therefore, likely were procured within the region. This natural occurrence is in contrast to the cultural importation of Scarlet and Military Macaws into the Southwest. Accordingly, Thick-billed Parrots from Bonnell and other sites provide important evidence of the natural distribution of this presently endangered species.