Fulica americana

The American coot, also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae. Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their lower legs and toes that fold back with each step to facilitate walking on dry land. Coots live near water, typically inhabiting wetlands and open water bodies in North America. Groups of coots are called covers or rafts. The oldest known coot lived to be 22 years old.

Fulica americana

Rhododendrites · 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
American cootPBDB
Sits inside
FulicaPBDB
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 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 40 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 33 of 40 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 40 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 28 occurrences1.4 Mya11.7 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

40 occurrences of Fulica americana 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

40 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

Okeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WAlamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WCaloosahatchee — 27.00°N, 82.00°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WPalm Springs — 32.89°N, 116.18°W

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The named rock units Fulica americana has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 30 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Fulica americana and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Fulica americana and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

941 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Fulica americana, 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

31 references

Each of the 40 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. 19 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 content2

Picture of Fulica americana

Credit
Rhododendrites
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

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 itFulica through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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