Alaudidae

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occurs in Australia. Habitats vary widely, but many species live in drier regions. When the word "lark" is used without specification, it often refers to the Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis).

Alaudidae

T.Voekler · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
larkPBDB
Sits inside
PasseriformesPBDB
Diet
insectivore, granivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 65 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 65 occurrencesPleistocene — about 56 of 65 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 65 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 35 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

65 occurrences of Alaudidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

65 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Gnilyane — 42.80°N, 23.06°EHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°E

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The named rock units Alaudidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 61 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alaudidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Alaudidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,012 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Alaudidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

32 references

Each of the 65 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 20 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Alaudidae

Credit
T.Voekler
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Alaudidae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPasseriformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Vigors 1825