Alectoris
Alectoris is a genus of partridges in the family Phasianidae, closely related to Old World quail, snowcocks (Tetraogallus), partridge-francolins (Pternistis), bush quail (Perdicula), and sand and see-see partridges (Ammoperdix). Members of the genus are known collectively as rock partridges. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek: αλέκτωρ, romanized: alektoris, meaning "chicken" or "farmyard fowl".

Mdf · 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
- partridgePBDB
- Sits inside
- PhasianidaePBDB
- Diet
- granivorePBDB, for Phasianidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Phasianidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Phasianidae
Time the record covers
At least 762 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.
30 occurrences of Alectoris 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
30 occurrences- Pleistocene66%
- Holocene34%
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.
Alectoris and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Alectoris and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
407 taxa- Cervus elaphus11 sites
- Pyrrhocorax graculus10 sites
- Columba livia9 sites
- Equus9 sites
- Bos primigenius8 sites
- Vulpes vulpes8 sites
- Athene noctua7 sites
- Coturnix coturnix7 sites
- Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax7 sites
- Sus scrofa7 sites
- Canis lupus6 sites
- Capreolus capreolus6 sites
- Corvus monedula6 sites
- Felis silvestris6 sites
- Oryctolagus cuniculus6 sites
- Pica pica6 sites
- Ursus arctos6 sites
- Cetacea5 sites
- Columba oenas5 sites
- Corvus corone5 sites
- Erinaceus europaeus5 sites
- Falco tinnunculus5 sites
- Lepus5 sites
- Lynx pardinus5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Alectoris, 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
21 references- The bird assemblage from the Middle Palaeolithic level I of Arbreda Cave: A taphonomic story4
- Early Pleistocene birds from Pirro Nord (Puglia, southern Italy)2
- Reinterpretation of the late Pleistocene Ingarano cave deposit based on the fossil bird associations (Apulia, south-eastern Italy)2
- The birds of the late Quaternary of the Altai Mts2
- Upper Pleistocene and Holocene fossil avifauna from Moleta cave (Mallorca, Balearic Islands)2
- The fauna of small vertebrates of the Middle Pleistocene at Petralona2
- La grotte de l'Observatoire à Monaco2
- The end of the Pleistocene in south-western Europe: The avian assemblages from Heinrich event 3 to the Last Glacial Maximum in the Prades mountains (north-eastern Iberian Peninsula)1
- Animal remains from 17th century Carnide, Lisbon, Portugal.1
- Entre veados e ovelhas, um dromedário e uma baleia de permeio: arqueozoologia em Mértola desde a Idade do Ferro até ´Época Medieval1
- Pleistocene birds of Gruta da Furninha (Peniche-Portugal): a paleontological and paleoenvironmental aproach1
- Estudo zooarqueológico dos restos recuperados no estabelecimento industrial romano do Creiro (Arrábida, Setúbal)1
Each of the 30 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. 9 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 Alectoris
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Mdf
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- ISM Zoology Collection
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Alectoris rufa · ISM:ISM-Aves:690293
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Alectoris”
- 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 itPhasianidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kaup 1829