Palaelodus

Palaelodus is an extinct genus of bird of the Palaelodidae family, distantly related to flamingos. They were slender birds with long, thin legs and a long neck resembling their modern relatives, but likely lived very different lifestyles. They had straight, conical beaks not suited for filter feeding and legs showing some similarities to grebes. Their precise lifestyle is disputed, with researchers in the past suggesting they may have been divers, while more recent research suggests they may have used their stiff toes as paddles for swimming while feeding on insect larvae and snails. This behavior may have been key in later phoenicopteriforms developing filter-feeding bills. The genus includes between five and eight species and is found across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and possibly South America. However some argue that most of the taxa named from Europe simply represent differently sized individuals of one single species. Palaelodus was most abundant during the Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene periods, but isolated remains from Australia indicate that the genus, or at least a relative, survived until the Pleistocene.

Palaelodus

Ghedoghedo · 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
PalaelodidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 19 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 5 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 20 occurrencesOligocene — about 5 of 20 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 15 of 20 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 20 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.4–6.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences6.4–5.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.4–4.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27.3 Mya8 Mya34.5 Mya4.4 Mya

20 occurrences of Palaelodus 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

20 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

Bannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°EJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°ETorreya — 30.30°N, 84.20°WItuzaingo — 31.68°S, 60.42°W

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The named rock units Palaelodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaelodus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Palaelodus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

136 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Palaelodus, 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

7 references

Each of the 20 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 content1

Picture of Palaelodus

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaelodus was found in Sketchfab.

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 itPalaelodidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Milne-Edwards 1863