Plotopteridae

Plotopteridae is an extinct family of flightless seabirds that lived in the Northern Pacific from the Eocene to Miocene epoch.

Plotopteridae

Pekachu · 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
Sits inside
SuliformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Eocene — about 3 of 40 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 35 of 40 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 40 occurrencesMiocene42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 3 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 3 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33.9 Mya20.45 Mya41.5 Mya15.5 Mya

40 occurrences of Plotopteridae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

18 formations

Makah — 48.32°N, 124.47°WMakah — 48.13°N, 123.76°WMakah — 48.16°N, 123.78°WPysht — 48.15°N, 123.86°WPysht — 48.16°N, 123.95°WLincoln Creek — 47.25°N, 123.48°WAinoshima — 33.99°N, 130.82°EYamaga — 33.85°N, 130.70°EYamaga — 33.86°N, 130.89°ETokoro — 43.97°N, 144.07°EJinnobaru — 33.95°N, 130.94°EWaita — 33.98°N, 130.84°EJewett — 35.49°N, 118.85°WAsagai Sandstone — 37.05°N, 140.88°EYamanouchi — 35.52°N, 137.08°EKeasey — 45.77°N, 123.24°WHatazu — 33.39°N, 129.88°EAshiya — 33.95°N, 130.94°EOrio — 33.95°N, 130.95°ESooke — 48.38°N, 123.73°WItanoura — 32.93°N, 129.64°EKakinoura — 32.99°N, 129.64°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Plotopteridae 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.

Plotopteridae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Plotopteridae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

158 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Plotopteridae, 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

20 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. 8 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 Plotopteridae

Credit
Pekachu
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Plotopteridae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itSuliformes through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Howard 1969