Phoebastria albatrus

The short-tailed albatross or Steller's albatross is a large rare seabird from the North Pacific. Although related to the other North Pacific albatrosses, it also exhibits behavioural and morphological links to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean. It was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas from skins collected by Georg Wilhelm Steller. Once common, it was brought to the edge of extinction by the trade in feathers, but with protection efforts underway since the 1950s, the species is in the process of recovering with an increasing population trend. It is divided into two distinct subpopulations, one of which breeds on Tori-shima in the Izu islands south of Japan, and the other primarily on the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

Phoebastria albatrus

Jlfutari at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5 · 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
short-tailed albatrossPBDB
Sits inside
PhoebastriaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Procellariiformes

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 36 occurrencesPliocene — about 7 of 36 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 23 of 36 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 36 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 16 occurrences3.6 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

36 occurrences of Phoebastria albatrus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

36 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

6 formations

San Diego — 32.71°N, 117.12°WSan Diego — 32.57°N, 117.03°WSan Diego — 32.74°N, 117.16°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WHirayama — 35.65°N, 139.38°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Phoebastria albatrus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Phoebastria albatrus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Phoebastria albatrus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,101 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Phoebastria albatrus, 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

17 references

Each of the 36 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. 5 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 content1

Picture of Phoebastria albatrus

Credit
Jlfutari at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Phoebastria albatrus 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 itPhoebastria through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Pallas 1769)