Balaenicipitidae

Balaenicipitidae is a family of birds in the order Pelecaniformes, although it was traditionally placed in Ciconiiformes. The shoebill is the sole extant species and its closest relative is the hamerkop, which belongs to another family. Species from the Ciconiiformes and Balaenicipitidae family have been found in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and parts of East Africa.

Balaenicipitidae

Hans Hillewaert · 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
shoebillPBDB
Sits inside
BalaenicipitesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.2–8.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.1–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence27.3 Mya11.7 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Balaenicipitidae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

3 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

Beglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°EJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°E

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The named rock units Balaenicipitidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Balaenicipitidae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Balaenicipitidae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

54 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Balaenicipitidae, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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 Balaenicipitidae

Credit
Hans Hillewaert
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Balaenicipitidae 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 itBalaenicipites through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1853