Prunella modularis
The dunnock is a small passerine, or perching bird, found throughout temperate Europe and into Asian Russia. Dunnocks have also been introduced and become common in New Zealand. It is the most widespread member of the accentor family; most other accentors are limited to mountain habitats. Other, largely archaic, English names for the dunnock include hedge accentor, hedge sparrow, hedge warbler, and titling.

Charles J. Sharp · 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
- hedge accentorPBDB
- Sits inside
- PrunellaPBDB
- 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 762 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1.8 Mya to 0 Mya.
5 occurrences of Prunella modularis 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
5 occurrences- Pleistocene80%
- Holocene20%
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.
Prunella modularis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Prunella modularis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
182 taxa- Columba livia4 sites
- Turdus merula3 sites
- Turdus philomelos3 sites
- Accipiter nisus2 sites
- Anas crecca2 sites
- Asio otus2 sites
- Calandrella brachydactyla2 sites
- Chloris chloris2 sites
- Coccothraustes coccothraustes2 sites
- Corvidae2 sites
- Coturnix coturnix2 sites
- Erithacus rubecula2 sites
- Falco columbarius2 sites
- Fringilla2 sites
- Lacerta2 sites
- Limosa limosa2 sites
- Lullula arborea2 sites
- Mareca penelope2 sites
- Pica pica2 sites
- Pyrrhocorax graculus2 sites
- Scolopax rusticola2 sites
- Sturnus2 sites
- Turdus2 sites
- Accipiter gentilis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Prunella modularis, 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
5 references- The Middle Pleistocene avifauna of Spinagallo Cave (Sicily, Italy): preliminary report1
- Implications of the avian fauna for palaeoecology in the Early Pleistocene of the Iberian Peninsula1
- Upper Pleistocene and Holocene fossil avifauna from Moleta cave (Mallorca, Balearic Islands)1
- Quaternary fossil fauna of South Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand1
- Pleistocene and prehistoric birds of south-west Britain1
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 Prunella modularis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Charles J. Sharp
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Prunella modularis was found in Sketchfab.
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Dunnock”
- 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 itPrunella through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)