Cygnus olor

The mute swan is a species of swan and a member of the family Anatidae within the waterfowl order. It is native to much of Europe and parts of Asia and the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and Southern Africa. The name "mute" derives from it being less vocal than other swan species. Typically measuring 140 to 160 cm in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage, with an orange beak bordered with black. It is recognisable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males.

Cygnus olor

Sanchezn · 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
mute swanPBDB
Sits inside
CygnusPBDB
Diet
folivore, granivorePBDB, for Anserinae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anserinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Anserinae
Length
147.5 cmWikidata
Mass
9.67 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 763 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 774 ka and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences807 ka–764 ka Mya — about 0.0 occurrences764 ka–722 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences722 ka–679 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences679 ka–637 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences637 ka–595 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences595 ka–552 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences552 ka–510 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences510 ka–467 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences467 ka–425 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences425 ka–382 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences382 ka–340 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences340 ka–297 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences297 ka–255 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences255 ka–212 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences212 ka–170 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences170 ka–127 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences127 ka–85 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences85 ka–42 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences42 ka–0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.27 Mya0 Mya

4 occurrences of Cygnus olor 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

4 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.

Cygnus olor and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cygnus olor and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

101 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Cygnus olor, 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

4 references

Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Cygnus olor

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

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Cygnus olor · mnhn:f:AC 1871-420

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 itCygnus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gmelin 1789)