Cygnus

Swans are birds of the genus Cygnus within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae, forming the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae. They are the largest waterfowl and are often among the largest flighted birds in their range.

Cygnus

Geni · 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
Sits inside
CygninaePBDB
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 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 12.8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 72 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 72 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 32 of 72 occurrencesPleistocene13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.8–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.9–8.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.4–8.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.0–7.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.5–7.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.1–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–4.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.4–4.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.0–3.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.5–3.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.1–2.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–1.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.8–1.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.3–887 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences887 ka–443 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences443 ka–0 Mya — about 49 occurrences11.63 Mya11.7 ka13.3 Mya0 Mya

72 occurrences of Cygnus 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

72 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

13 formations

Hagerman — 42.81°N, 114.95°WHagerman — 42.79°N, 114.95°WKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WCromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.27°EHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°EDiest — 51.18°N, 4.83°EBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WKuyal'nikian — 46.46°N, 30.73°EGlenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBecerra — 19.90°N, 99.13°WAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°E

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The named rock units Cygnus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 58 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cygnus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cygnus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,609 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 66 sites for Cygnus, 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

53 references

Each of the 72 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. 41 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 content2

Picture of Cygnus

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itCygninae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Garsault 1764