Geospiza
Geospiza is a genus of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. All species in the genus are endemic to the Galápagos Islands. Together with related genera, they are collectively known as Darwin's finches. Although in the past, they were classified in the bunting and American sparrow family Emberizidae, more recent studies have shown they belong in the tanager family.
Putneymark · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
- Darwin's finchPBDB
- Sits inside
- ThraupidaePBDB
- 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.
17 occurrences of Geospiza 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
17 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.
Geospiza and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Geospiza and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
29 taxa- Alsophis4 sites
- Aves4 sites
- Geochelone elephantopus4 sites
- Mimus trifasciatus4 sites
- Passeriformes4 sites
- Phyllodactylus4 sites
- Rattus rattus4 sites
- Tropidurus4 sites
- Zenaida galapagoensis4 sites
- Mus musculus3 sites
- Camarhynchus pauper2 sites
- Certhidea olivacea2 sites
- Lasiurus borealis2 sites
- Mammalia2 sites
- Myiarchus magnirostris2 sites
- Nyctanassa violacea2 sites
- Ardeidae1 site
- Camarhynchus parvulus1 site
- Equus asinus1 site
- Felis domesticus1 site
- Oceanodroma castro1 site
- Osteichthves indet.1 site
- Osteichthyes1 site
- Platyspiza crassirostris1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Geospiza, 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
1 referenceEach of the 17 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Geospiza
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Putneymark
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- CAS Ornithology (ORN)
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Geospiza scandens · CAS:ORN:7022
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, “Geospiza”
- 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 itThraupidae through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gould 1837