Anser albifrons

The greater white-fronted goose is a species of goose, closely related to the smaller lesser white-fronted goose. The greater white-fronted goose is migratory, breeding in northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and Russia, and winters farther south in North America, Europe, and Asia. It is named for the patch of white feathers bordering the base of its bill; its specific name albifrons comes from the Latin albus "white" and frons "forehead". In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it has been known as the white-fronted goose; in North America, it is known as the greater white-fronted goose, and this name is also increasingly adopted internationally. Even more distinctive are the salt-and-pepper markings on the breast of adult birds, which is why the goose is colloquially called the "specklebelly" in North America.

Anser albifrons

Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
greater white-fronted goosePBDB
Sits inside
AnserPBDB
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 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.

Pliocene — about 0 of 19 occurrencesPleistocene — about 18 of 19 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 19 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences774 ka11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

19 occurrences of Anser albifrons 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

19 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

3 formations

Gabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°W

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The named rock units Anser albifrons has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Anser albifrons and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Anser albifrons and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

481 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Anser albifrons, 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

15 references

Each of the 19 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. 3 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 albifrons

Credit
Frank Schulenburg
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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
MooreLab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itAnser through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Scopoli 1769