Branta canadensis

The Canada goose is a large species of goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the Arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is occasionally found during migration across the Atlantic in northern Europe. It has been introduced to France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands. Like most geese, the Canada goose is primarily herbivorous and normally migratory; often found on or close to fresh water, the Canada goose is also common in brackish marshes, estuaries, and lagoons.

Branta canadensis

USFWS Mountain-Prairie · 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
Canada goosePBDB
Sits inside
BrantaPBDB
Diet
folivore, granivorePBDB, for Anserinae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anserinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Anserinae
Mass
3.31 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 48 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 33 of 48 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 14 of 48 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 40 occurrences1.4 Mya11.7 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

48 occurrences of Branta canadensis 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

48 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

7 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°W

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The named rock units Branta canadensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 41 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Branta canadensis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Branta canadensis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,064 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 48 sites for Branta canadensis, 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

32 references

Each of the 48 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. 20 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 content2

Picture of Branta canadensis

Credit
USFWS Mountain-Prairie
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itBranta through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)