Pandion

Pandion is a genus of fish-eating bird of prey, known as ospreys, the only genus of the family Pandionidae. The genus Pandion is named for the mythical Greek figure of the same name. Some taxonomic arrangements place it alongside the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridae — which itself can be regarded as making up the bulk of the order Accipitriformes — or else allied with the Falconidae into Falconiformes. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy has placed it together with the other diurnal raptors in a greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes, but this results in an unnatural paraphyletic classification.

Pandion

RoySmith · 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
ospreyPBDB
Sits inside
PandionidaePBDB
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 least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 17 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesPleistocene — about 7 of 17 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences10–9.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.2–8.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences8.1–6.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.9–5.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.8–4.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 11 occurrences27.3 Mya11.7 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

17 occurrences of Pandion 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

17 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

7 formations

Gabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°EGebel Silsila-YCS — 24.50°N, 33.00°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WJebel Qatrani — 29.45°N, 30.58°EAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WAdu Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°ETemblor — 35.47°N, 118.91°W

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The named rock units Pandion has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pandion and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Pandion and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

983 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Pandion, 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

15 references

Each 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. 3 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 content3

Picture of Pandion

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

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pandion haliaetus · SAMA:Ornithology:B31786

3D model

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

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

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 itPandionidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Savigny 1809