Anas theodori · Epoch Explorer

The Mascarene teal, also known as the Mauritius duck and Sauzier's teal, is an extinct species of duck that lived on the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Réunion. A small duck was mentioned in 17th century accounts from these islands which is thought to be this species, and it may also be depicted in one illustration. In 1893, various bones from the Mare aux Songes swamp of Mauritius were used to name a new species in the duck genus Anas, A. theodori, after Théodore Sauzier who directed the excavations. Additional remains from Réunion were considered to belong to the same species in 1999, and it was determined to be related to the Sunda teal of the Indian Ocean.

Cambridge Engraving Company, established by looking throughout the journal issue and only finding the company attribu… · Public Domain · 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: Mascarene tealPBDB
Sits inside: AnasPBDB
Diet: herbivorePBDB, for Anatinae
Life habit: volantPBDB, for Anatinae
Motility: actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment: freshwaterPBDB, for Anatinae

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.

2 occurrences of Anas theodori 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

2 occurrences

Holocene100%

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.

Anas theodori and its relatives

Holocene

Where Anas theodori and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

23 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Anas theodori, 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

The avifauna of Réunion Island (Mascarene Islands) at the time of the arrival of the first EuropeansMourer-Chauviré et al., 1999 · Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology · serial monograph1
On additional bones of the Dodo and other extinct birds of Mauritius obtained by Mr. Théodore SauzierNewton and Gadow, 1893 · Transactions of the Zoological Society of London · journal article1

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Anas theodori

Source: Wikipedia/Commons
Credit: Cambridge Engraving Company, established by looking throughout the journal issue and only finding the company attribu…
Licence: Public Domain
Commercial use: the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anas theodori 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

Source: Wikipedia, “Mascarene teal”
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 it Anas through time Formations of the Holocene The world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Newton and Gadow 1893