Melanitta nigra

The common scoter is a large sea duck, 43–54 cm (17–21 in) in length, which breeds over the far north of Europe and the Palearctic east to the Olenyok River. The black scoter of North America and eastern Siberia was formerly considered to be a subspecies.

Melanitta nigra

Stephan Sprinz · 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
common scoterPBDB
Sits inside
MelanittaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Anatinae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anatinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Anatinae

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 11 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 11 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 8 of 11 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 2 of 11 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences3.6 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

11 occurrences of Melanitta nigra 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

11 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

2 formations

Cromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.88°N, 1.44°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°W

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The named rock units Melanitta nigra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Melanitta nigra and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Melanitta nigra and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

609 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Melanitta nigra, 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

10 references

Each of the 11 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. 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 Melanitta nigra

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

No 3D scan of Melanitta nigra was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itMelanitta through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)