Geospiza difficilis
The sharp-beaked ground finch is a species of bird in the Darwin's finch group of the tanager family Thraupidae, and it is native to the Galápagos Islands. It has a mass of around 20 grams (0.71 oz) and the males have black plumage, while females have streaked grey plumage. This finch was described by Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1888.
Daderot · CC0 · 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
- sharp-beaked ground-finchPBDB
- Sits inside
- GeospizaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
- Mass
- 16 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At most 12 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
2 occurrences of Geospiza difficilis on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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
2 occurrences- Holocene100%
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.
Geospiza difficilis and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Geospiza difficilis and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
33 taxa- Alsophis2 sites
- Aves2 sites
- Certhidea olivacea2 sites
- Geochelone elephantopus2 sites
- Geospiza fuliginosa2 sites
- Geospiza magnirostris2 sites
- Mimus trifasciatus2 sites
- Mus musculus2 sites
- Nyctanassa violacea2 sites
- Passeriformes2 sites
- Phyllodactylus2 sites
- Rattus rattus2 sites
- Tropidurus2 sites
- Zenaida galapagoensis2 sites
- Ardeidae1 site
- Camarhynchus parvulus1 site
- Camarhynchus pauper1 site
- Equus asinus1 site
- Felis domesticus1 site
- Geospiza fortis1 site
- Geospiza scandens1 site
- Lasiurus borealis1 site
- Mammalia1 site
- Myiarchus magnirostris1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Geospiza difficilis, 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
1 referenceEach of the 2 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 Geospiza difficilis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Daderot
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- CAS Ornithology (ORN)
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Geospiza difficilis · CAS:ORN:6680
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 itGeospiza through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sharpe 1888