Anser

Anser is a waterfowl genus that includes the grey geese and the white geese. It belongs to the true goose and swan subfamily of Anserinae under the family of Anatidae. The genus has a Holarctic distribution, with at least one species breeding in any open, wet habitats in the subarctic and cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in summer. Some also breed farther south, reaching into warm temperate regions. They mostly migrate south in winter, typically to regions in the temperate zone between the January 0 °C (32 °F) and 5 °C (41 °F) isotherms.

Anser

Uncredited · 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
Sits inside
AnseriniPBDB
Diet
folivore, granivorePBDB, for Anserinae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anserinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Anserinae

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 93 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 93 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 55 of 93 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 33 of 93 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.0–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 73 occurrences3.6 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

93 occurrences of Anser 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

93 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

7 formations

Gabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°EGebel Silsila-YCS — 24.50°N, 33.00°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WHagerman — 42.79°N, 114.95°W

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The named rock units Anser has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 85 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anser and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Anser and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,533 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 78 sites for Anser, 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

52 references

Each of the 93 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. 40 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 Anser

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Anser albifrons · MLZ:Bird:MLZ:Bird:27972

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
Juha M
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 itAnserini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758