Cerorhinca monocerata
The rhinoceros auklet is a seabird and a close relative of the puffins. It is the only extant species of the genus Cerorhinca. Given its close relationship with the puffins, the common name rhinoceros puffin has been proposed for the species.

Uncredited · 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
- rhinoceros aukletPBDB
- Sits inside
- CerorhincaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Charadriiformes
- Mass
- 456 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
5 occurrences of Cerorhinca monocerata 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- Pleistocene60%
- Holocene40%
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.
Cerorhinca monocerata and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Cerorhinca monocerata and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
133 taxa- Ptychoramphus aleuticus5 sites
- Synthliboramphus antiquus5 sites
- Fratercula cirrhata4 sites
- Hydrobates leucorhous4 sites
- Melospiza melodia4 sites
- Athene cunicularia3 sites
- Aves3 sites
- Branta canadensis3 sites
- Catharus guttatus3 sites
- Catharus ustulatus3 sites
- Cepphus columba3 sites
- Chondestes grammacus3 sites
- Eremophila alpestris3 sites
- Falco sparverius3 sites
- Haemorhous mexicanus3 sites
- Icterus bullockii3 sites
- Lanius ludovicianus3 sites
- Larus heermanni3 sites
- Larus occidentalis3 sites
- Oreoscoptes montanus3 sites
- Oreothlypis celata3 sites
- Passerculus sandwichensis3 sites
- Passerella iliaca3 sites
- Phalacrocorax3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Cerorhinca monocerata, 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
2 references- Terminal Pleistocene–Holocene Avifauna of San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands: Identifications of Previously Unidentified Avian Remains Recovered from Fossil Sites and Prehistoric Cave Deposits3
- A zooarchaeological study at Buldir Island, Western Aleutians, Alaska2
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 content3
Picture of Cerorhinca monocerata
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Cerorhinca monocerata · PSAL:ARCH:A217
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- 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 itCerorhinca through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Pallas 1811)