Ciconiidae

Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes. Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and ibises, but those families have been moved to the order Pelecaniformes.

Ciconiidae

Soloneying · 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
storkPBDB
Sits inside
CiconiiformesPBDB
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 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 99 occurrencesOligocene — about 2 of 99 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 27 of 99 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 99 occurrencesPleistocene — about 56 of 99 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 2 occurrences10–9.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.2–8.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.1–6.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences6.9–5.8 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.8–4.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.6–3.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.5–2.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.3–1.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 53 occurrences27.3 Mya11.7 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

99 occurrences of Ciconiidae 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

99 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

27 formations

Dam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WTorreya — 30.30°N, 84.20°WJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°EJebel Qatrani — 29.50°N, 30.50°ECaloosahatchee — 27.00°N, 82.00°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WItuzaingo — 31.68°S, 60.42°WAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENawata or Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°ESanta Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°EAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WPuerto Madryn — 42.25°S, 64.31°WTemblor — 35.47°N, 118.91°WMoghara — 30.38°N, 28.82°EBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBecerra — 19.90°N, 99.13°W

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The named rock units Ciconiidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 62 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ciconiidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ciconiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,392 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 78 sites for Ciconiidae, 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

63 references

Each of the 99 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. 51 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 content1

Picture of Ciconiidae

Credit
Soloneying
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ciconiidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itCiconiiformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sundevall 1836