Aphelocoma coerulescens
The Florida scrub jay is one of the species of scrub jay native to North America. It is the only species of bird endemic to the U.S. state of Florida and one of only 15 species endemic to the continental United States. Because of this, it is keenly sought by birders. It is known to have been present in Florida as a distinct species for at least 2 million years, and is possibly derived from the ancestors of Woodhouse's scrub jay.

VvAndromedavV · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
- Florida scrub jayPBDB
- Sits inside
- AphelocomaPBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Corvidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Corvidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Corvidae
Time the record covers
At least 1.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.
5 occurrences of Aphelocoma coerulescens 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
5 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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.
Aphelocoma coerulescens and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Aphelocoma coerulescens and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
313 taxa- Accipiter cooperii4 sites
- Podilymbus podiceps4 sites
- Zenaida macroura4 sites
- Athene cunicularia3 sites
- Botaurus lentiginosus3 sites
- Bubo virginianus3 sites
- Cardinalis cardinalis3 sites
- Colaptes auratus3 sites
- Coragyps occidentalis3 sites
- Corvus ossifragus3 sites
- Ectopistes migratorius3 sites
- Equus3 sites
- Falco peregrinus3 sites
- Falco sparverius3 sites
- Gallinago gallinago3 sites
- Hemiauchenia macrocephala3 sites
- Megascops asio3 sites
- Molothrus ater3 sites
- Odocoileus virginianus3 sites
- Peromyscus polionotus3 sites
- Sigmodon hispidus3 sites
- Tapirus3 sites
- Tyto alba3 sites
- Accipiter striatus2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Aphelocoma coerulescens, 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
5 references- Avian community, climate, and sea-level changes in the Plio-Pleistocene of the Florida Peninsula1
- Reconstruction of mid Wisconsinan environments in southern New Mexico1
- A Pleistocene avifauna from Haile, Florida1
- A comparison of avian assemblages from individual pits at Rancho La Brea, California1
- The Pleistocene avifauna of Arredondo, Florida1
Each of the 5 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. 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 Aphelocoma coerulescens
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- VvAndromedavV
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Aphelocoma coerulescens was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itAphelocoma through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bosc 1795)