Vegaviidae

Vegaviidae is a proposed extinct family of neognathous, possibly anseriform birds which lived during the Late Cretaceous and possibly the Paleocene. The monophyly of the family has been questioned by subsequent studies, with the only definitive member Vegavis known from the Maastrichtian stage of Antarctica, though some fossil genera from other continents have been assigned to this clade.

Vegaviidae

El fosilmaníaco · 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
AnseriformesPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Anseriformes
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anseriformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 24 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 48.07 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 5 of 9 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 3 of 9 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 1 of 9 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 9 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 1 occurrence71–69 Mya — about 1 occurrence69–67 Mya — about 1 occurrence67–66 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences62–60 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences59–57 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72.2 Mya48.07 Mya85 Mya33 Mya

9 occurrences of Vegaviidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

9 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

5 formations

López de Bertodano — 64.27°S, 56.72°WLópez de Bertodano — 64.26°S, 56.78°WLópez de Bertodano — 63.86°S, 57.57°WWaipara Greensand — 43.07°S, 172.60°EQuiriquina — 36.72°S, 73.12°WEstratos de Algarrobo — 33.36°S, 71.68°WNorthumberland — 49.54°N, 124.71°W

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The named rock units Vegaviidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Vegaviidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Vegaviidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

43 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Vegaviidae, 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

6 references

Each of the 9 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 Vegaviidae

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

No 3D scan of Vegaviidae 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 itAnseriformes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Agnolín et al. 2017)