Mergus

Mergus is the genus containing the typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the subfamily Anatinae.

Mergus

Mykola Swarnyk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
merganserPBDB
Sits inside
MerginiPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Anatinae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Anatinae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Anatinae

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 55 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 55 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 33 of 55 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 41 occurrences13.82 Mya11.7 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

55 occurrences of Mergus 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

55 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

10 formations

Gabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°EHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°ECalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WGebel Silsila-YCS — 24.50°N, 33.00°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WSajovolgyi — 47.97°N, 19.69°EManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°W

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The named rock units Mergus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 42 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mergus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mergus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,545 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 48 sites for Mergus, 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

36 references

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. 24 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 Mergus

Credit
Mykola Swarnyk
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itMergini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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