Songzia heidangkouensis

Songzia is an extinct genus of gruiform bird related to rails. It lived in the Eocene epoch. Though many families traditionally assigned to the Gruiformes do not seem to actually belong there, this is apparently not the case with this animal. Its fossils have been found in Songzi county.

Songzia heidangkouensis

Jonathan Chen · 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
Sits inside
SongziaPBDB
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 most 8 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 56 Mya and 48.07 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 0 of 1 occurrenceEocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEocene56–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences50–50 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences50–49 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences49–49 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56.5 Mya47.6 Mya

1 occurrence of Songzia heidangkouensis 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

1 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

1 formation

Yangxi — 30.17°N, 111.75°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Songzia heidangkouensis and its relatives

Eocene

Where Songzia heidangkouensis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

2 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Songzia heidangkouensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Songzia heidangkouensis

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

No 3D scan of Songzia heidangkouensis 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

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 itSongzia through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hou 1990