Fregata
Frigatebirds are a family of seabirds called Fregatidae which are found across all tropical and subtropical oceans. The five extant species are classified in a single genus, Fregata. All have predominantly black plumage, long, deeply forked tails and long hooked bills. Females have white underbellies and males have a distinctive red gular pouch which they inflate during the breeding season to attract females. Their wings are long and pointed and can span up to 2.3 metres (7.5 ft), the largest wing area to body mass ratio of any bird.
The original uploader was Aquaimages at English Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
- FregatidaePBDB
- 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 most 12 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
58 occurrences of Fregata on record, most of them in the Holocene. 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
58 occurrences- Holocene100%
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.
Fregata and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Fregata and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
166 taxa- Gygis alba20 sites
- Anous stolidus17 sites
- Gallus gallus17 sites
- Pterodroma15 sites
- Sula sula15 sites
- Phaethon rubricauda13 sites
- Onychoprion fuscatus12 sites
- Puffinus nativitatis12 sites
- Numenius tahitiensis11 sites
- Anous10 sites
- Phaethon lepturus10 sites
- Puffinus lherminieri10 sites
- Gallicolumba leonpascoi9 sites
- Nesofregetta fuliginosa9 sites
- Sterninae9 sites
- Sula9 sites
- Sula leucogaster9 sites
- Zapornia atra9 sites
- Anous ceruleus8 sites
- Anous minutus8 sites
- Ptilinopus insularis8 sites
- Puffinus8 sites
- Acrocephalus taiti7 sites
- Procellariidae7 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 44 sites for Fregata, 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
19 references- Extinction, biogeography, and human exploitation of birds on Tikopia and Anuta, Polynesian outliers in the Solomon Islands11
- The fossil birds of Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group: natural turnover and human impact, a synopsis9
- Biogeography and prehistoric exploitation of birds from Fais Island, Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia6
- Paleornithology of St. Helena Island, South Atlantic Ocean5
- New prehistoric avifaunas from the Gambier Group, French Polynesia4
- Extinction and biogeography of birds on Huahine, Society Islands, French Polynesia3
- Prehistoric extinction of birds on Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia3
- Life on the edge: prehistoric settlement and economy on Utrōk Atoll, northern Marshall Islands2
- Extinct and extirpated birds from Aitutaki and Atiu, southern Cook Islands2
- Extinction of birds in eastern Polynesia: A review of the record, and comparison with other Pacific island groups2
- Additional notes on subfossil bird remains from Ascension Island2
- Subfossil bird remains on Ascension Island2
Each of the 58 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. 7 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 Fregata
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- The original uploader was Aquaimages at English Wikipedia .
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Fregata magnificens · FMNH:Birds:378758
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Frigatebird”
- 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 itFregatidae through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lacépède 1799