Numenius phaeopus
The Eurasian whimbrel, historically known as the white-rumped whimbrel in North America, is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across much of subarctic Palearctic region and Europe as far south as Scotland. This species and the Hudsonian whimbrel were split in 2019, although some taxonomic authorities still consider them to be conspecific.

Uncredited · 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
- whimbrelPBDB
- Sits inside
- NumeniusPBDB
- 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 2 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 14 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 210 ka to 0 Mya.
16 occurrences of Numenius phaeopus 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- Pleistocene44%
- Holocene56%
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 the same rock
411 taxa- Anas6 sites
- Tyto alba6 sites
- Anous stolidus3 sites
- Antigone canadensis3 sites
- Aquila chrysaetos3 sites
- Athene cunicularia3 sites
- Branta canadensis3 sites
- Buteo jamaicensis3 sites
- Cathartes aura3 sites
- Charadrius semipalmatus3 sites
- Falco peregrinus3 sites
- Fulica americana3 sites
- Gallus gallus3 sites
- Larus3 sites
- Limosa fedoa3 sites
- Onychoprion lunatus3 sites
- Pelecanus occidentalis3 sites
- Pluvialis dominica3 sites
- Pluvialis squatarola3 sites
- Podiceps nigricollis3 sites
- Polyborus plancus3 sites
- Tringa semipalmata3 sites
- Accipiter striatus2 sites
- Accipitridae2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Numenius phaeopus, 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
12 references- Biogeography and prehistoric exploitation of birds from Fais Island, Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia3
- Distribution and provenance of fossil avifauna on San Miguel Island2
- Remains of rare and extinct birds from Illinois Indian sites2
- Pleistocene birds of Gruta da Furninha (Peniche-Portugal): a paleontological and paleoenvironmental aproach1
- Birds of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene from the Palaeolithic Djuktai cave site of Yakutia, eastern Siberia1
- Prehistoric human impacts on California birds: evidence from the Emeryville shellmoumd avifauna1
- Prehistoric exploitation of birds on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico1
- The avifauna of Réunion Island (Mascarene Islands) at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans1
- Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers at Ishango (eastern Zaire): the faunal evidence1
- The late Pleistocene avifauna of La Carolina, southwestern Ecuador1
- A comparison of avian assemblages from individual pits at Rancho La Brea, California1
- Hachisuka, 19531
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 content3
Picture of Numenius phaeopus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Numenius hudsonicus hudsonicus · FMNH:Birds:385840
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- 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 itNumenius through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)