Primobucco

Primobucco is an extinct genus of bird placed in its own family, Primobucconidae. The type species, Primobucco mcgrewi, lived during the Lower Eocene of North America. It was initially described by American paleo-ornithologist Pierce Brodkorb in 1970, from a fossil right wing, and thought to be an early puffbird. However, the discovery of a further 12 fossils in 2010 indicate that it is instead an early type of roller.

Primobucco

Smithsonian Institution · CC0 · 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
Sits inside
CoraciiPBDB
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 3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 48.07 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 41.03 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 5 occurrencesEocene — about 5 of 5 occurrencesEocene57–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences51.1 Mya48.07 Mya56.5 Mya40.5 Mya

5 occurrences of Primobucco on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

5 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

3 formations

Green River — 42.00°N, 109.23°WGreen River — 41.77°N, 110.66°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°ELondon Clay — 51.85°N, 1.28°E

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The named rock units Primobucco has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Primobucco and its relatives

Eocene

Where Primobucco and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

163 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Primobucco, 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

4 references

Each of the 5 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 Primobucco

Credit
Smithsonian Institution
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Primobucco was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itCoracii through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brodkorb 1970