Pelagornis

Pelagornis is an extinct genus of prehistoric pseudotooth birds, a group of extinct seabirds. Species span from the Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene. Members of Pelagornis represent among the largest pseudotooth birds, with one species, P. sandersi, having the widest wingspan of any bird known.

Pelagornis

Pelagornis.jpg : Ryan Somma derivative work: Haplochromis ( talk ) · 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
Sits inside
PelagornithidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pelagornithidae

Time the record covers

At least 96 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 40 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 40 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 40 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 40 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 40 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 27 of 40 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 40 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 40 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences105–101 Mya — about 1 occurrence101–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–33 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences33–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–15 Mya — about 4 occurrences15–11 Mya — about 8 occurrences11–7.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences7.7–4.1 Mya — about 8 occurrences4.1–506 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences100.5 Mya3.6 Mya108 Mya506 ka

40 occurrences of Pelagornis 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

40 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

20 formations

Bahía Inglesa — 27.12°S, 70.90°WBahía Inglesa — 27.33°S, 70.84°WBahía Inglesa — 27.17°S, 70.87°WBahía Inglesa — 27.08°S, 70.84°WMonterey — 33.60°N, 117.70°WMonterey — 34.95°N, 120.14°WPisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WPisco — 15.50°S, 74.80°WPisco — 15.44°S, 74.87°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WGault — 51.73°N, 2.37°WNye — 44.57°N, 124.07°WAshley — 32.89°N, 79.84°WAshley — 32.83°N, 79.99°WModelo — 34.15°N, 118.47°WPurisima — 37.30°N, 122.41°WMolasse Coquilliere — 43.64°N, 0.45°ETemblor — 35.47°N, 118.91°WBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.99°S, 145.04°EChandler Bridge — 32.90°N, 80.04°WCastillo — 10.37°N, 70.07°WCapadare — 10.86°N, 68.61°WGreta — 43.05°S, 173.08°ECalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WAridal — 25.09°N, 13.89°WAstoria — 44.73°N, 124.06°WKeasey — 45.88°N, 123.31°W

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The named rock units Pelagornis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pelagornis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Pelagornis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

935 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 37 sites for Pelagornis, 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

30 references

Each of the 40 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. 18 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Pelagornis

Credit
Pelagornis.jpg : Ryan Somma derivative work: Haplochromis ( talk )
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itPelagornithidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lartet 1857