Gruidae

Cranes are a type of large bird with long legs and necks in the biological family Gruidae of the order Gruiformes. The family has 15 species placed in four genera which are Antigone, Balearica, Leucogeranus, and Grus. They are large birds with long necks and legs, a tapering form, and long secondary feathers on the wing that project over the tail. Most species have muted gray or white plumages, marked with black, and red bare patches on the face, but the crowned cranes of the genus Balearica have vibrantly-coloured wings and golden "crowns" of feathers. Cranes fly with their long legs outstretched and necks extended outwards instead of bending them in an S-shape like herons.

Gruidae

Zygy · 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
cranePBDB
Sits inside
GruiformesPBDB
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 45 million years on record.

The record covers at least 45.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 51.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 8 of 116 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 116 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 14 of 116 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 116 occurrencesPleistocene — about 70 of 116 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 1 occurrence47–45 Mya — about 1 occurrence45–43 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–8.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.7–7.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.0–5.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.2–3.5 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.5–1.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.7–0 Mya — about 84 occurrences45.9 Mya11.7 ka52 Mya0 Mya

116 occurrences of Gruidae 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

116 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

20 formations

Bridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.04°N, 110.23°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WGabal Silsila — 24.77°N, 32.95°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°ESnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WVanheim — 37.18°N, 100.28°WTorreya — 30.30°N, 84.20°WJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°ETamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WHagerman — 42.79°N, 114.95°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WItuzaingo — 31.68°S, 60.42°WRunningwater — 42.80°N, 103.10°WGreen Valley — 37.81°N, 121.91°W

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The named rock units Gruidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 87 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gruidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Gruidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,109 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 88 sites for Gruidae, 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

56 references

Each of the 116 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. 44 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 content1

Picture of Gruidae

Credit
Zygy
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itGruiformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Vigors 1825