Anhinga

The darters, anhingas, or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, Anhinga. There are four living species found in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia. The term snakebird is usually used without any additions to signify whichever of the completely allopatric species occurs in any one region. It refers to their long thin neck, which has a snake-like appearance when they swim with their bodies submerged, or when mated pairs twist it during their bonding displays. "Darter" is used with a geographical term when referring to particular species. It alludes to their manner of procuring food, as they impale fishes with their thin, pointed beak. The American darter is more commonly known as the anhinga. It is sometimes called water turkey in the Southern United States; though the anhinga is quite unrelated to the wild turkey, they are both large, blackish birds with long, fanlike, pale-tipped dark tails.

Anhinga

Stickpen · 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
Sits inside
AnhingidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 44 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 23 of 44 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 7 of 44 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 44 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 12 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

44 occurrences of Anhinga on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

44 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

18 formations

Solimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 10.94°S, 69.34°WAlachua — 29.70°N, 82.60°WAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°WAdu Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°EAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°EFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WSajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°ESanta Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°WVillavieja — 3.22°N, 75.14°WTatrot — 30.68°N, 77.00°EWyandotte — 18.77°S, 144.85°EOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WItuzaingo — 31.68°S, 60.42°WWaite — 23.70°S, 133.88°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EEtadunna — 29.13°S, 138.10°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Anhinga has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anhinga and its relatives

Miocene

Where Anhinga and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,034 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Anhinga, 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

32 references

Each of the 44 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. 20 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 Anhinga

Credit
Stickpen
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Anhinga rufa · l-jz:JZ:78

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 itAnhingidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brisson 1760