Alcidae

Auks or alcids are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct species that are classified into 11 genera. Auks are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Alcidae

Art Sowls, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service · Public Domain · 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
aukPBDB
Sits inside
AlcoidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Charadriiformes

Time the record covers

At least 33 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 545 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 545 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 545 occurrencesMiocene — about 55 of 545 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 77 of 545 occurrencesPleistocene — about 223 of 545 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 8 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 9 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 9 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 9 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 41 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 60 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 387 occurrences33.9 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

545 occurrences of Alcidae 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

545 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

37 formations

San Diego — 32.80°N, 117.26°WSan Diego — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSan Diego — 32.74°N, 117.17°WSan Diego — 32.71°N, 117.08°WSan Diego — 32.57°N, 117.03°WSan Diego — 32.76°N, 117.13°WSan Diego — 32.74°N, 117.05°WMonterey — 33.56°N, 117.71°WMonterey — 34.61°N, 120.44°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WCalvert — 37.77°N, 77.28°WCalvert — 37.77°N, 77.37°WCalvert — 37.66°N, 77.11°WCalvert — 38.55°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 37.97°N, 76.79°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.87°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.85°WCalvert — 38.42°N, 76.62°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WCalvert — 37.62°N, 77.18°WAlmejas — 28.11°N, 115.18°WAlmejas — 28.37°N, 115.18°WEastover — 37.69°N, 76.97°WEastover — 37.77°N, 77.27°WEastover — 38.17°N, 76.87°WEastover — 38.16°N, 76.83°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WKattendijk — 51.26°N, 4.27°EAcredale — 36.79°N, 76.17°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WKempsville — 36.79°N, 76.17°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WChoptank — 38.43°N, 76.43°WChoptank — 38.47°N, 76.48°WGreen River — 40.53°N, 109.09°WWilson Grove — 38.34°N, 122.84°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WIchijiku — 35.27°N, 140.00°ESanta Margarita — 37.01°N, 122.01°WOosterhout — 51.70°N, 5.73°ESaint Marys — 38.17°N, 76.44°WSt Marys — 38.32°N, 76.42°WNiguel — 33.47°N, 117.67°WCapistrano — 33.44°N, 117.62°W

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The named rock units Alcidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 379 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Alcidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Alcidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,079 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 313 sites for Alcidae, and this reads 240 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

117 references

Each of the 545 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. 105 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 Alcidae

Credit
Art Sowls, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itAlcoidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leach 1820