Megalodytes
Megalodytes is an extinct genus of waterfowl. The only known species, M. morejohni, is known from fragmentary wingbones found in Middle Miocene-aged marine strata of Kern County, California. Other specimens from similarly aged material from Japan originally referred to Megalodytes is now referred to the genus Annakacygna.
No picture of Megalodytes was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Megalodytes, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- CygninaePBDB
- Diet
- folivore, granivorePBDB, for Anserinae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Anserinae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- freshwaterPBDB, for Anserinae
Time the record covers
At least 2.1 million years on record.
The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 7.246 Mya.
2 occurrences of Megalodytes on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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- Miocene100%
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
- Haraichi Formation · Tomioka Group1
- Temblor Formation1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Megalodytes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Megalodytes and its relatives
MioceneWhere Megalodytes and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
6 taxa- Allodesmus sinanoensis1 site
- Balaenoptera1 site
- Cetotheriidae1 site
- Delphinidae1 site
- Halitheriinae indet.1 site
- Scaldicetus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Megalodytes, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
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
2 references- A specimen-based approach to reconstructing the late Neogene seabird communities of California1
- Preliminary note on the Miocene flightless swan from the Haraichi Formation, Tomioka Group of Annaka, Gunma, Japan1
Each 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. 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 content0
No picture of Megalodytes was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.
Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.
GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Megalodytes, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.
No 3D scan of Megalodytes was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Megalodytes”
- 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 itCygninae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.