Apodiformes

The Apodiformes is an order, or taxonomic grouping, of birds which traditionally contained three living families—the Apodidae (swifts), the Hemiprocnidae (treeswifts), and the Trochilidae (hummingbirds); however, in the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy, this order is elevated to the superorder Apodimorphae, in which hummingbirds are separated into a new order, the Trochiliformes. With nearly 450 species identified to date, it is the most diverse order of birds after the Passeriformes.

Apodiformes

Charles J. Sharp · 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
swiftPBDB
Sits inside
CypselomorphaePBDB
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 51.1 Mya to 27.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 23.04 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 18 occurrencesEocene — about 16 of 18 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 2 of 18 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 18 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–48 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 1 occurrence40–38 Mya — about 1 occurrence38–37 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51.1 Mya27.3 Mya56.7 Mya22.4 Mya

18 occurrences of Apodiformes on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

18 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

8 formations

London Clay — 50.78°N, 0.68°WLondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.41°N, 0.91°ELondon Clay — 51.85°N, 1.28°EPerriere — 44.35°N, 1.73°EPerrière — 44.38°N, 1.43°EFur — 56.83°N, 8.75°ETielt — 51.01°N, 3.23°EGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WNanjemoy — 38.28°N, 77.37°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°E

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The named rock units Apodiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Apodiformes and its relatives

Eocene

Where Apodiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

502 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Apodiformes, 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

13 references

Each of the 18 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. 1 further reference is 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 content1

Picture of Apodiformes

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Apodiformes 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

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 itCypselomorphae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Peters 1940)