Coraciiformes

The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful birds including the kingfishers, the bee-eaters, the rollers, the motmots, and the todies. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes, though in many kingfishers one of these is missing.

Coraciiformes

Christian Svane · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
PasserimorphaePBDB
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 51 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 84 occurrencesEocene — about 28 of 84 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 84 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 84 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 84 occurrencesPleistocene — about 25 of 84 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 4 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 4 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 3 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 3 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 4 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 1 occurrence32–30 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 52 occurrences51.1 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

84 occurrences of Coraciiformes on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

84 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

8 formations

London Clay — 51.85°N, 1.28°ELondon Clay — 51.64°N, 0.78°ELondon Clay — 51.87°N, 1.29°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.73°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EGreen River — 42.00°N, 109.23°WGreen River — 41.77°N, 110.66°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°ETielt — 51.01°N, 3.23°EAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°W

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The named rock units Coraciiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 65 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Coraciiformes and its relatives

Eocene

Where Coraciiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,827 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 72 sites for Coraciiformes, 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

48 references

Each of the 84 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. 36 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 content1

Picture of Coraciiformes

Credit
Christian Svane
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Coraciiformes 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 itPasserimorphae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Forbes 1884)