Delphinornis

Delphinornis is an extinct genus of penguins that lived around the middle Eocene to the middle Miocene in Antarctica.

Delphinornis

Jadwiszczak, P. and Mörs, T. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
SphenisciformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Sphenisciformes

Time the record covers

At least 10 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Eocene — about 10 of 13 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 13 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 13 occurrencesMiocene42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 1 occurrence37–36 Mya — about 2 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 2 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37.71 Mya27.3 Mya41.5 Mya15.5 Mya

13 occurrences of Delphinornis on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

13 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

2 formations

Submeseta — 64.25°S, 56.63°WLa Meseta — 64.29°S, 56.69°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°W

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The named rock units Delphinornis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Delphinornis and its relatives

Eocene

Where Delphinornis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

62 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Delphinornis, 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

5 references

Each of the 13 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 content1

Picture of Delphinornis

Credit
Jadwiszczak, P. and Mörs, T.
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Delphinornis 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 itSphenisciformes through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wiman 1905