Gygis alba
The Atlantic white tern, also known as the common white tern, is a small seabird found in the Atlantic Ocean. It is sometimes known as the fairy tern, although this name is potentially confusing as it is also the common name of Sternula nereis. Other names for the species include angel tern and white noddy. The blue-billed white tern and the little white tern have sometimes been considered as subspecies of the Atlantic white tern.
Drew Avery · CC BY 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
- white ternPBDB
- Sits inside
- GygisPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Charadriiformes
- Mass
- 138 gWikidata
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.
55 occurrences of Gygis alba 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
55 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.
Gygis alba and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Gygis alba and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
159 taxa- Fregata minor17 sites
- Pterodroma17 sites
- Puffinus nativitatis17 sites
- Phaethon rubricauda16 sites
- Anous stolidus15 sites
- Phaethon lepturus15 sites
- Anous ceruleus13 sites
- Nesofregetta fuliginosa13 sites
- Gallicolumba leonpascoi12 sites
- Gallus gallus12 sites
- Anous11 sites
- Numenius tahitiensis11 sites
- Ardenna pacifica10 sites
- Ptilinopus insularis10 sites
- Sula dactylatra10 sites
- Zapornia atra10 sites
- Alopecoenas xanthonurus9 sites
- Fregata ariel9 sites
- Sula sula9 sites
- Acrocephalus taiti8 sites
- Aplonis opaca8 sites
- Onychoprion fuscatus8 sites
- Anous minutus7 sites
- Gallirallus7 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 51 sites for Gygis alba, 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
18 references- The fossil birds of Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group: natural turnover and human impact, a synopsis12
- New prehistoric avifaunas from the Gambier Group, French Polynesia7
- The prehistory of vertebrates, especially birds, on Tinian, Aguiguan, and Rota, Northern Mariana Islands7
- Prehistoric extinction of birds on Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia5
- Avifaunal assemblages from Nenega-iti and Onemea4
- Paleornithology of St. Helena Island, South Atlantic Ocean3
- Fossil vertebrates from Palau, Micronesia: a resource assessment2
- Fossil and archaeological avifauna of Niue Island, Pacific Ocean2
- Biogeography and prehistoric exploitation of birds from Fais Island, Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia2
- Additional notes on subfossil bird remains from Ascension Island2
- Subfossil bird remains on Ascension Island2
- Bird, reptile and mammal remains from archaeological sites on Rapa Island1
Each of the 55 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. 6 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 Gygis alba
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Drew Avery
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Gygis alba rothschildi · FMNH:Birds:314021
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 itGygis through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Sparman 1786)