Gaviiformes

Gaviiformes is an order of aquatic birds containing the loons or divers and their closest extinct relatives. Modern gaviiformes are found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia, though prehistoric species were more widespread.

Gaviiformes

Tim Bowman, USFWS Originally uploaded by User Kingturtle on en.wikipedia · Public Domain · 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
loonPBDB
Sits inside
AequornithesPBDB
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 least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 134 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 134 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 134 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 134 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 16 of 134 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 134 occurrencesPleistocene — about 40 of 134 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–12 Mya — about 1 occurrence12–9.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–2.5 Mya — about 13 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 96 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka74 Mya0 Mya

134 occurrences of Gaviiformes on record. 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

134 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

21 formations

San Diego — 32.74°N, 117.17°WSan Diego — 32.90°N, 117.10°WSan Diego — 32.74°N, 117.05°WSan Diego — 32.73°N, 117.14°WSan Diego — 32.63°N, 117.02°WSan Diego — 32.76°N, 117.14°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPeace River — 27.74°N, 81.93°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.62°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 37.93°N, 77.51°WLiuchungchi — 23.44°N, 120.59°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WSan Mateo — 33.20°N, 117.37°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WEbelsberg — 48.21°N, 14.22°EKaraginskaya — 43.82°N, 51.43°EPismo — 35.17°N, 120.73°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WMonterey — 33.56°N, 117.71°WBuchak — 49.53°N, 39.07°EEtchegoin — 36.20°N, 121.08°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WEnspel — 50.61°N, 7.89°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°EManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WIchijiku — 35.27°N, 140.00°E

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The named rock units Gaviiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 83 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

2,758 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 101 sites for Gaviiformes, 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

64 references

Each of the 134 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. 52 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 Gaviiformes

Credit
Tim Bowman, USFWS Originally uploaded by User Kingturtle on en.wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Gaviiformes was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource 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 itAequornithes through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Wetmore and Miller 1926)