Meleagris

Turkeys are large, heavyset galliforms in the genus Meleagris, indigenous to the Americas. They are among the largest birds in their native ranges, as well as being one of the heaviest birds in the order Galliformes. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey of Southern, Central and Eastern North America, and the ocellated turkey of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Males of both species have a distinctive singular fleshy wattle, called a snood, that hangs from the base of the culmen. Like with other phasianines, the male is bigger and sports fancier plumage than the female.

Meleagris

Frank Schulenburg · 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
turkeyPBDB
Sits inside
PhasianidaePBDB
Diet
granivorePBDB, for Phasianidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Phasianidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Phasianidae

Time the record covers

At least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 71 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 71 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 56 of 71 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 11 of 71 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.3–2.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.1–1.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.8–1.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.3–1.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 53 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

71 occurrences of Meleagris 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

71 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

8 formations

Okeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WVerde — 34.50°N, 112.50°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WEastover — 38.16°N, 76.83°WBacons Castle — 38.16°N, 76.83°W

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The named rock units Meleagris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 62 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Meleagris and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Meleagris and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,745 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 69 sites for Meleagris, 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

49 references

Each of the 71 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. 37 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 Meleagris

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itPhasianidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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