Falconidae

The falcons and caracaras are around 65 species of diurnal birds of prey that make up the family Falconidae. The family likely originated in South America during the Paleocene and is divided into three subfamilies: Herpetotherinae, which includes the laughing falcon and the forest falcons; Polyborinae, which includes the spot-winged falconet and the caracaras; and Falconinae, the true falcons, hobbies and kestrels (Falco) and the falconets (Microhierax).

Falconidae

jjron · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
FalconiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 45 million years on record.

The record covers at least 45.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 51.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 260 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 260 occurrencesMiocene — about 14 of 260 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 260 occurrencesPleistocene — about 195 of 260 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 5 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–8.7 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences8.7–7.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.0–5.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.2–3.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.5–1.7 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.7–0 Mya — about 235 occurrences45.9 Mya11.7 ka52 Mya0 Mya

260 occurrences of Falconidae 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

260 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

18 formations

Santa Cruz — 50.35°S, 68.95°WSanta Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.12°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 69.03°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WOlcott — 42.40°N, 103.80°WOlcott — 42.19°N, 103.73°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WSheep Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°ELujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WMonte Hermoso — 38.00°S, 61.00°WCerro Bandera — 39.27°S, 69.28°WCaleta Herradura de Mejillones — 23.36°S, 70.53°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBecerra — 19.90°N, 99.13°WPampean — 38.20°S, 59.12°WCerro Azul — 35.69°S, 64.67°WLaguna de Tagua Tagua — 34.50°S, 71.17°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Falconidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 235 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Falconidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Falconidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,632 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 160 sites for Falconidae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

108 references

Each of the 260 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. 96 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 Falconidae

Credit
jjron
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Falconidae 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 itFalconiformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Vigors 1824