Ortalis

Chachalacas are galliform birds from the genus Ortalis. These birds are found in wooded habitats in the far southern United States (Texas), Mexico, and Central and South America. They are social, can be very noisy and often remain fairly common even near humans, as their relatively small size makes them less desirable to hunters than their larger relatives. As agricultural pests, they have a ravenous appetite for tomatoes, melons, beans, and radishes and can ravage a small garden in short order. They travel in packs of six to twelve. Their nests are made of sticks, twigs, leaves, or moss and are generally frail, flat structures only a few feet above the ground. During April, they lay from three to five buffy white eggs, the shell of which is very rough and hard. They somewhat resemble the guans, and the two have commonly been placed in a subfamily together, though the chachalacas are probably closer to the curassows.

Ortalis

Fernando Flores from Caracas, Venezuela · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
chachalacaPBDB
Sits inside
CracidaePBDB
Diet
frugivorePBDB, for Cracidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Cracidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Cracidae

Time the record covers

At least 18 million years on record.

The record covers at least 18.5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 7 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences787 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences18.5 Mya11.7 ka23.6 Mya0 Mya

7 occurrences of Ortalis on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

7 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

4 formations

Ogallala — 39.08°N, 99.75°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WMarsland — 42.42°N, 103.87°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°W

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The named rock units Ortalis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ortalis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Ortalis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

404 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Ortalis, 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

5 references

Each of the 7 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 Ortalis

Credit
Fernando Flores from Caracas, Venezuela
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Ortalis motmot motmot · YPM:VZ:YPM ORN 137598

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 itCracidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Merrem 1786