Ardeola

Pond herons (Ardeola) are herons, typically 40–50 cm (16–20 in) long with an 80–100 cm (30–40 in) wingspan. Most breed in the tropical Old World, but the migratory squacco heron occurs in southern Europe and the Middle East and winters in Africa. The scientific name comes from Latin ardeola, a small heron (ardea).

Ardeola

Benjamint444 · GFDL 1.2 · 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
pond heronPBDB
Sits inside
ArdeinaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Ardeidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Ardeidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ardeidae

Time the record covers

At least 9.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 9.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.5 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10.0–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences433 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.4 Mya129 ka13 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Ardeola 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

3 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

1 formation

Alachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°W

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The named rock units Ardeola has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ardeola and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ardeola and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

151 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Ardeola, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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. 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 Ardeola

Credit
Benjamint444
Licence
GFDL 1.2
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ardeola 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 itArdeinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Boie 1822