Calidris

Calidris is a genus of Arctic-breeding, strongly migratory wading birds in the family Scolopacidae. These birds form huge mixed flocks on coasts and estuaries in winter. They are small to medium-sized sandpipers, long-winged and relatively short-billed; some are difficult to identify because of the similarity between species, and various breeding, non-breeding, juvenile, and moulting plumages. With a few exceptions, they have a fairly stereotypical colour pattern, being brownish above and lighter, usually white or buffy coloured, on much of the underside. They often have a lighter supercilium above brownish cheeks. The species are variously known in English as sandpipers or stints; some have their own unique names, with dunlin, knot, ruff, and sanderling and surfbird. In North America, the smaller species are often known colloquially as peeps.

Calidris

Stephan Sprinz · CC BY 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
Sits inside
ScolopacidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Charadriiformes

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 67 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 67 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 50 of 67 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 10 of 67 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–809 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 54 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

67 occurrences of Calidris 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

67 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

4 formations

Tamiami — 27.34°N, 82.51°WPeace River — 27.74°N, 81.93°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WAlachua — 29.65°N, 82.60°W

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The named rock units Calidris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 61 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Calidris and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Calidris and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,525 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 47 sites for Calidris, 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

39 references

Each of the 67 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. 27 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 Calidris

Credit
Stephan Sprinz
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Calidris canutus · FMNH:Birds:363893

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
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 itScolopacidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gmelin 1789