Galliformes

Galliformes, also known as gallinaceous birds or landfowl, is an order of heavy-bodied terrestrial birds that contains about 290 species. The order is divided into five families: Phasianidae, Odontophoridae, Numididae, Cracidae, and Megapodiidae. Galliformes and the semi-aquatic order Anseriformes (waterfowl) are collectively called fowl.

Galliformes

MathKnight · 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
fowlPBDB
Sits inside
CarinataePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 72 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 935 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 935 occurrencesEocene — about 30 of 935 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 11 of 935 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 84 of 935 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 47 of 935 occurrencesPleistocene — about 443 of 935 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 5 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 7 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 6 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 2 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 3 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 3 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–28 Mya — about 3 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 4 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 9 occurrences17–14 Mya — about 12 occurrences14–11 Mya — about 14 occurrences11–8.5 Mya — about 18 occurrences8.5–5.7 Mya — about 22 occurrences5.7–2.8 Mya — about 44 occurrences2.8–0 Mya — about 769 occurrences72.2 Mya11.7 ka85 Mya0 Mya

935 occurrences of Galliformes 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

935 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

67 formations

Vogel River Series — 3.20°S, 35.22°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.23°S, 36.19°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°ELondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°ELondon Clay — 51.64°N, 0.78°ELondon Clay — 51.85°N, 1.28°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EVarswater — 33.67°S, 18.43°EPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WNaran Bulak — 44.62°N, 106.18°ENaran Bulak — 43.47°N, 100.37°EBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EXiacaowan — 33.45°N, 118.20°EEastover — 37.77°N, 77.27°WEastover — 38.16°N, 76.83°WMarsland — 42.42°N, 103.87°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 43.78°N, 102.55°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°ECromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°EWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WGreen River — 41.78°N, 110.73°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WPikermi — 38.00°N, 23.96°EMiocene Lower Continental Complex — 41.44°N, 2.00°EMakah — 48.33°N, 124.47°WMakah — 48.37°N, 124.58°W

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The named rock units Galliformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 43 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 801 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Galliformes and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Galliformes and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

4,445 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 592 sites for Galliformes, and this reads 240 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

318 references

Each of the 935 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. 306 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 Galliformes

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

No 3D scan of Galliformes 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 itCarinatae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Temminck 1820)