Accipitridae

The Accipitridae is one of the four families within the order Accipitriformes, and is a family of small to large birds of prey with strongly hooked bills and variable morphology based on diet. They feed on a range of prey items from insects to medium-sized mammals, with a number feeding on carrion and a few feeding on fruit. The Accipitridae have a cosmopolitan distribution, being found on all the world's continents and a number of oceanic island groups. Some species are migratory. The family contains 256 species which are divided into 12 subfamilies and 75 genera.

Accipitridae

Mark Medcalf · CC BY 2.0 · 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
hawkPBDB
Sits inside
AccipitriformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 760 occurrencesEocene — about 11 of 760 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 10 of 760 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 50 of 760 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 17 of 760 occurrencesPleistocene — about 531 of 760 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence48–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–44 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–32 Mya — about 3 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–19 Mya — about 3 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 8 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 8 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 6 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 5 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 7 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 13 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 23 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 655 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

760 occurrences of Accipitridae 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

760 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

63 formations

Yorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WAsh Hollow — 42.34°N, 98.24°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBecerra — 19.90°N, 99.13°WNamba — 31.12°S, 140.21°ENamba — 31.11°S, 140.14°EGabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°EGabal Silsila — 24.77°N, 32.95°EVogel River Series — 3.20°S, 35.21°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°ESelsey — 50.80°N, 1.21°WXiacaowan — 33.45°N, 118.20°EAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WHarrison — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WCaloosahatchee — 27.00°N, 82.00°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.10°WGila Conglomerate — 32.69°N, 109.45°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WBannockburn — 44.89°S, 169.84°EBannockburn — 44.91°S, 169.86°EManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WLaguna de Tagua Tagua — 34.50°S, 71.17°WHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WChalk Hills — 42.73°N, 115.87°WDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°EWhite River — 40.90°N, 104.87°WVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Accipitridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 39 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 668 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Accipitridae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Accipitridae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,853 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 376 sites for Accipitridae, 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

245 references

Each of the 760 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. 233 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 Accipitridae

Credit
Mark Medcalf
Licence
CC BY 2.0
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 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 itAccipitriformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Viellot 1816