Phalacrocorax capensis
The Cape cormorant, also known as the Cape shag, is a member of the cormorant family. It is endemic to the southwestern coast of Africa, and classified as "Endangered" by the IUCN. The Cape cormorant is most closely related to the great cormorant and Japanese cormorant.

Yathin S Krishnappa · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
- cape cormorantPBDB
- Sits inside
- PhalacrocoraxPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
- Mass
- 45 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 117 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 129 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 774 ka to 0 Mya.
4 occurrences of Phalacrocorax capensis 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
4 occurrences- Pleistocene25%
- Holocene75%
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
24 taxa- Spheniscus demersus4 sites
- Larus dominicanus3 sites
- Morus capensis3 sites
- Phalacrocorax carbo3 sites
- Microcarbo coronatus2 sites
- Phalacrocorax neglectus2 sites
- Alcelaphus buselaphus1 site
- Arctocephalus pusillus1 site
- Bubo africanus1 site
- Burhinus capensis1 site
- Chersina angulata1 site
- Chroicocephalus hartlaubii1 site
- Connochaetes gnou1 site
- Diomedeidae1 site
- Haematopus moquini1 site
- Homo sapiens1 site
- Lobodon carcinophaga1 site
- Lupulella mesomelas1 site
- Passeriformes1 site
- Patella1 site
- Pternistis capensis1 site
- Sterna hirundo1 site
- Thalasseus bergii1 site
- Thalasseus sandvicensis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Phalacrocorax capensis, 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- Seasonal exploitation of seabirds by Late Holocene coastal foragers: Analysis of modern and archaeological data from Western Cape, South Africa3
- Human mandibular incisors from the late Middle Pleistocene locality of Hoedjiespunt 1, South Africa1
Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Phalacrocorax capensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Yathin S Krishnappa
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Phalacrocorax capensis 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 itPhalacrocorax through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Sparrman 1788)