Ploceus sakalava
The Sakalava weaver sometimes known as the Sakalava fody is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. The bird is 15 cm (5.9 in) long and weighs 20–28 g (0.71–0.99 oz).

Francesco Veronesi from Italy · CC BY-SA 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
- sakalava weaverPBDB
- Sits inside
- PloceusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
- Mass
- 24 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At most 129 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 129 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
3 occurrences of Ploceus sakalava 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
3 occurrences- Pleistocene30%
- Holocene70%
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.
Ploceus sakalava and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Ploceus sakalava and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
103 taxa- Coracopsis vasa3 sites
- Coua cristata3 sites
- Numida meleagris3 sites
- Otus rutilus3 sites
- Streptopelia picturata3 sites
- Turnix nigricollis3 sites
- Tyto alba3 sites
- Athene superciliaris2 sites
- Buteo brachypterus2 sites
- Corvus albus2 sites
- Coua cursor2 sites
- Coua gigas2 sites
- Coua ruficeps2 sites
- Falco newtoni2 sites
- Foudia madagascariensis2 sites
- Milvus migrans aegyptius2 sites
- Mullerornis2 sites
- Oena capensis2 sites
- Phedina borbonica2 sites
- Pterocles personatus2 sites
- Upupa marginata2 sites
- Accipiter henstii1 site
- Accipiter madagascariensis1 site
- Accipitridae1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Ploceus sakalava, 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
3 references- Subfossil birds from a submerged cave in southwestern Madagascar1
- Bird fossils from Ankilitelo Cave: inference about Holocene environmental changes in southwestern Madagascar1
- New findings at Andrahomana Cave, southeastern Madagascar1
Each of the 3 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 content2
Picture of Ploceus sakalava
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Francesco Veronesi from Italy
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Ploceus sakalava · FMNH:Birds:429319
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 itPloceus through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Hartlaub 1860)