Histrionicus histrionicus

The harlequin duck is a small sea duck. It takes its name from Harlequin, a colourfully dressed character in the commedia dell'arte theatre of Italy. The species name comes from the Latin word histrio, meaning "actor". Other names include painted duck, totem pole duck, rock duck, glacier duck, mountain duck, white-eyed diver, squeaker, lords and ladies and blue streak.

Histrionicus histrionicus

Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife · 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
harlequin duckPBDB
Sits inside
HistrionicusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Anseriformes
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anseriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 3.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 6 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 6 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 6 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6 Mya129 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

6 occurrences of Histrionicus histrionicus 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

6 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

2 formations

Yorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°W

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The named rock units Histrionicus histrionicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Histrionicus histrionicus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Histrionicus histrionicus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

596 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Histrionicus histrionicus, 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

4 references

Each of the 6 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 content3

Picture of Histrionicus histrionicus

Credit
Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife
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
Histrionicus histrionicus · MCZ:Orn:336960

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
MooreLab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itHistrionicus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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