Diomedea

The great albatrosses are seabirds in the genus Diomedea in the albatross family. The genus Diomedea formerly included all albatrosses except the sooty albatrosses, but in 1996 the genus was split, with the mollymawks and the North Pacific albatrosses both being elevated to separate genera.

Diomedea

Uncredited · 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
DiomedeidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Procellariiformes

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 13 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 33 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 4 of 33 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.8–9.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.1–8.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences8.4–7.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.7–7.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.0–6.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences6.3–5.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.6–4.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.9–4.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.2–3.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.5–2.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.1–1.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 15 occurrences15.98 Mya11.7 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Diomedea on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

33 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

Temblor — 35.47°N, 118.91°WTemblor — 35.30°N, 118.50°WSan Diego — 32.68°N, 117.07°WSan Diego — 32.74°N, 117.15°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°W"Topanga" — 33.66°N, 117.63°WMonterey — 33.56°N, 117.71°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WBlack Rock Sandstone — 37.99°S, 145.04°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WBahía Inglesa — 27.08°S, 70.84°WRosarito Beach — 32.12°N, 116.80°WVarswater — 32.96°S, 18.11°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WAstoria — 46.19°N, 123.83°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Diomedea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diomedea and its relatives

Miocene

Where Diomedea and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

953 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Diomedea, 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

25 references

Each of the 33 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. 13 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 Diomedea

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Diomedea exulans · l-jz:JZ:10

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 itDiomedeidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758