Haematopus
The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus. They are found on coasts worldwide, apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and Southeast Asia. The exceptions to this are the Eurasian oystercatcher, the South Island oystercatcher, and the Magellanic oystercatcher, which also breed inland, far inland in some cases. In the past there has been a great deal of confusion as to the species' limits, with discrete populations of all black oystercatchers being afforded specific status but pied oystercatchers being considered one single species.
JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
- HaematopodidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Charadriiformes
Time the record covers
At least 7.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.
16 occurrences of Haematopus on record. 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
16 occurrences- Miocene6%
- Pliocene24%
- Pleistocene26%
- Holocene44%
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
3 formations
- Yorktown Formation · Chesapeake Group3
- Hillgrove Formation3
- Peace River Formation · Hawthorn Group1
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The named rock units Haematopus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Found in the same rock
619 taxa- Apteryx australis6 sites
- Ardenna grisea6 sites
- Eudyptula minor6 sites
- Gallirallus australis6 sites
- Larus6 sites
- Larus dominicanus6 sites
- Phalacrocorax carunculatus6 sites
- Phalacrocorax punctatus6 sites
- Anas chlorotis5 sites
- Corvus moriorum5 sites
- Coturnix novaezelandiae5 sites
- Cyanoramphus5 sites
- Eudyptes pachyrhynchus5 sites
- Nestor meridionalis5 sites
- Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae5 sites
- Puffinus5 sites
- Anthus novaeseelandiae4 sites
- Callaeas cinereus4 sites
- Emeus crassus4 sites
- Fulica prisca4 sites
- Harpagornis moorei4 sites
- Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae4 sites
- Mergus australis4 sites
- Pachyornis elephantopus4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Haematopus, 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
9 references- A remarkable fossil and archaeological avifauna from Marfells Beach, Lake Grassmere, South Island, New Zealand5
- Late-Pleistocene avifaunas from Cape Wanbrow, Otago, South Island, New Zealand3
- Miocene and Pliocene birds from the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina2
- A new Middle Pleistocene bird assemblage from Cava di Breccia di Casal Selce (Ponte Galeria, Rome, Italy)1
- Additions to, and review of, the Miocene shark and ray fauna of Malta1
- Fossils indicate Pelecanoides georgicus had large colonies at Mason Bay, Stewart Island, New Zealand1
- Seasonal exploitation of seabirds by Late Holocene coastal foragers: Analysis of modern and archaeological data from Western Cape, South Africa1
- The avifauna of the Bone Valley Formation1
- Catalogue of Tertiary Fossil Sites of the Land Mammals in the U.S.S.R.1
Each of the 16 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 content2
Picture of Haematopus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ )
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Turku City Museum
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
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 itHaematopodidae through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758