Aythya

Aythya is a genus of diving ducks, with twelve species currently accepted. The genus was described in 1822 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie, with the type species being greater scaup. The name Aythya comes from the Ancient Greek word αἴθυιᾰ, which referred to an unknown diving-bird.

Aythya

Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife · 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
Sits inside
AythyiniPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Anatinae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anatinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Anatinae

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 124 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 124 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 82 of 124 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 39 of 124 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 12 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 94 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

124 occurrences of Aythya 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

124 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

14 formations

Bermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WGabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°EGebel Silsila-YCS — 24.50°N, 33.00°EAlamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBecerra — 19.90°N, 99.13°WCromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°E

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The named rock units Aythya has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 105 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aythya and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aythya and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,806 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 88 sites for Aythya, 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

56 references

Each of the 124 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. 44 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 Aythya

Credit
Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Aythya affinis · MLZ:Bird:MLZ:Bird:49390

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itAythyini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Boie 1822