Ptilinopus
The fruit doves, also known as fruit pigeons, are a genus (Ptilinopus) of birds in the pigeon and dove family (Columbidae). These colourful, frugivorous doves are found in forests and woodlands in Southeast Asia and Oceania. It is a large genus with nearly 50 species, some threatened or already extinct. This genus formerly included two fruit doves that are now placed in the genus Megaloprepia and nine fruit doves that are now placed in the genus Ramphiculus.

Roger MacKertich · 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
- fruit dovePBDB
- Sits inside
- ColumbidaePBDB
- Diet
- frugivore, granivorePBDB, for Columbidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Columbidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Columbidae
Time the record covers
At most 129 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 129 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
54 occurrences of Ptilinopus on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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
54 occurrences- Pleistocene18%
- Holocene82%
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.
Ptilinopus and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Ptilinopus and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
251 taxa- Gygis alba18 sites
- Passeriformes14 sites
- Anous ceruleus13 sites
- Phaethon rubricauda13 sites
- Puffinus nativitatis13 sites
- Columbidae12 sites
- Rallidae12 sites
- Alopecoenas xanthonurus11 sites
- Aplonis opaca11 sites
- Fregata minor11 sites
- Gallirallus11 sites
- Phaethon lepturus11 sites
- Porzana11 sites
- Pterodroma11 sites
- Anous10 sites
- Gallicolumba leonpascoi10 sites
- Anous stolidus9 sites
- Gallus gallus9 sites
- Numenius tahitiensis9 sites
- Pteropus9 sites
- Zapornia atra9 sites
- Acrocephalus taiti8 sites
- Ardenna pacifica8 sites
- Megapodius laperouse8 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 47 sites for Ptilinopus, 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
18 references- The fossil birds of Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group: natural turnover and human impact, a synopsis10
- The prehistory of vertebrates, especially birds, on Tinian, Aguiguan, and Rota, Northern Mariana Islands8
- Prehistoric birds from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea: extinctions on a large Melanesian island5
- Extinction of birds in eastern Polynesia: A review of the record, and comparison with other Pacific island groups5
- Biogeography of Tongan birds before and after human impact4
- Prehistoric butchery and consumption of birds in the Kingdom of Tonga, south Pacific3
- Extinct and extirpated birds from Rota, Mariana Islands3
- Prehistoric extinction of birds on Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia3
- New prehistoric avifaunas from the Gambier Group, French Polynesia2
- The prehistory and biogeography of terrestrial vertebrates on Guam, Mariana Islands2
- A chronostratigraphic analysis of landbird extinction on Tahuata, Marquesas Islands2
- Prehistoric avifaunas from the Kingdom of Tonga1
Each of the 54 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. 6 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 content3
Picture of Ptilinopus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Roger MacKertich
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- NMNH - Division of Birds
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Ptilinopus superbus · USNM:BIRDS:USNM 558285
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Fruit dove”
- 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 itColumbidae through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Swainson 1825