Athene

Athene is a genus of owls, containing nine living species, depending on classification. These birds are small, with brown and white speckles, yellow eyes, and white eyebrows. This genus is found on all continents except for Australia, Antarctica, and Sub-Saharan Africa. An evolutionary radiation of four species is also present in the Solomon Islands.

Athene

Andy Morffew from Itchen Abbas, Hampshire, UK · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Sits inside
StrigidaePBDB
Diet
carnivore, insectivorePBDB, for Strigidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Strigidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Strigiformes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Strigidae

Time the record covers

At least 9.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.67 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 75 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 75 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 60 of 75 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 12 of 75 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.4–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.5–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–2.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.7–2.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.3–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–1.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.5–1.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.2–773 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences773 ka–387 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences387 ka–0 Mya — about 58 occurrences9.67 Mya11.7 ka11.6 Mya0 Mya

75 occurrences of Athene 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

75 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

Edelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°ETurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°W

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The named rock units Athene has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 73 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Athene and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Athene and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,442 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 71 sites for Athene, 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

46 references

Each of the 75 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. 34 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 content3

Picture of Athene

Credit
Andy Morffew from Itchen Abbas, Hampshire, UK
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Athene noctua bactriana · FMNH:Birds:106872

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
Free Standard
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itStrigidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Scopoli 1769)