Threskiornis solitarius

The Réunion ibis or Réunion sacred ibis is an extinct species of ibis that was endemic to the volcanic island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The first subfossil remains were found in 1974, and the ibis was first scientifically described in 1987. Its closest relatives are the Malagasy sacred ibis, the African sacred ibis, and the straw-necked ibis. Travellers' accounts from the 17th and 18th centuries described a white bird on Réunion that flew with difficulty and preferred solitude, which was subsequently referred to as the "Réunion solitaire".

Threskiornis solitarius

Drawn by FunkMonk with anatomical suggestions from Snowmanradio · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Réunion ibisPBDB
Sits inside
ThreskiornisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Threskiornithidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Threskiornithidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Threskiornithidae

Time the record covers

At most 12 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesHolocene — about 3 of 3 occurrences17 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences512 ka0 Mya

3 occurrences of Threskiornis solitarius on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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

3 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.

Threskiornis solitarius and its relatives

Holocene

Where Threskiornis solitarius and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

16 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Threskiornis solitarius, 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

Each of the 3 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. 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 Threskiornis solitarius

Credit
Drawn by FunkMonk with anatomical suggestions from Snowmanradio
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Threskiornis solitarius 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 itThreskiornis through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Selys-Longchamps 1848)