Fulica

Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus Fulica, the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually easy to see, often swimming in open water.

Fulica

Geni · 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
Also called
cootPBDB
Sits inside
RallidaePBDB
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 9.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 94 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 94 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 59 of 94 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 32 of 94 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10.0–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–3.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.9–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.5–3.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.6–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–1.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.7–1.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.3–867 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences867 ka–433 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences433 ka–0 Mya — about 80 occurrences9.4 Mya11.7 ka13 Mya0 Mya

94 occurrences of Fulica 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

94 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

13 formations

Laguna de Tagua Tagua — 34.50°S, 71.17°WPampean — 38.20°S, 59.12°WTamiami — 27.78°N, 82.68°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WAlamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°ECaloosahatchee — 27.00°N, 82.00°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WJuntura — 43.60°N, 117.50°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WPalm Springs — 32.89°N, 116.18°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Fulica has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 68 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Fulica and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Fulica and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,351 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Fulica, 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

58 references

Each of the 94 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. 46 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 content3

Picture of Fulica

Credit
Geni
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Fulica americana · ouvc:10846

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itRallidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758