Strigiformes

Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes, which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers adapted for silent flight. Exceptions include the diurnal northern hawk-owl and the gregarious burrowing owl.

Strigiformes

Carlos Delgado · 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
owlPBDB
Sits inside
FalconimorphaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 61.66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 5 of 604 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 16 of 604 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 11 of 604 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 26 of 604 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 604 occurrencesPleistocene — about 407 of 604 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 2 occurrences59–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 1 occurrence55–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 1 occurrence44–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–40 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 3 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–10 Mya — about 3 occurrences10–8.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences8.4–6.3 Mya — about 7 occurrences6.3–4.2 Mya — about 8 occurrences4.2–2.1 Mya — about 26 occurrences2.1–0 Mya — about 518 occurrences59.24 Mya11.7 ka63 Mya0 Mya

604 occurrences of Strigiformes 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

604 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

38 formations

facies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°EBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.28°N, 110.03°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.73°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WVogel River Series — 3.21°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EWaimanalo — 21.30°N, 158.10°WEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°EWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.77°WMission Valley — 32.90°N, 117.10°WWind River — 43.32°N, 107.70°WHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°EShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WHsanda Gol — 45.41°N, 101.26°ENaran Bulak — 43.47°N, 100.37°EConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°ESables de Bracheux — 49.27°N, 4.15°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.27°EBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°W

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The named rock units Strigiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 544 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Strigiformes and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Strigiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,464 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 359 sites for Strigiformes, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

207 references

Each of the 604 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. 195 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 Strigiformes

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itFalconimorphae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wagler 1830)