Coliidae

The mousebirds are birds in the order Coliiformes. They are the sister group to the clade Cavitaves, which includes the Leptosomiformes, Trogoniformes (trogons), Bucerotiformes, Piciformes and Coraciiformes. This group is now confined to sub-Saharan Africa, and it is the only bird order confined entirely to that continent, with the possible exception of turacos which are considered by some as the distinct order Musophagiformes, and the cuckoo roller, which is the only member of the order Leptosomiformes, and which is found in Madagascar but not mainland Africa. Mousebirds had a wider range in the Paleogene, with a widespread distribution in Europe and North America during the Paleocene.

Coliidae

Doug Janson · 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
Sits inside
ColiiformesPBDB
Diet
frugivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 49 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 774 ka.

Paleocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 14 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 14 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 14 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 14 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence51.1 Mya1.8 Mya57 Mya0 Mya

14 occurrences of Coliidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

14 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

9 formations

Messel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EVarswater & Bredasdorp — 32.98°S, 18.15°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.34°EFur — 56.83°N, 8.75°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EEnspel — 50.61°N, 7.89°EGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Coliidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Coliidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Coliidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

685 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Coliidae, 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

13 references

Each of the 14 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. 1 further reference is 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 content1

Picture of Coliidae

Credit
Doug Janson
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Coliidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itColiiformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Swainson 1837