Strigidae

The true owls or typical owls are one of the two generally accepted families of owls, the other being the barn owls and bay owls (Tytonidae). This large family comprises roughly 230 living or recently extinct species in 23 genera. The Strigidae owls have a cosmopolitan distribution and are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Strigidae

Wolfgang Wander · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
true owlPBDB
Sits inside
StrigiformesPBDB
Diet
carnivore, insectivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Strigiformes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 6 of 431 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 431 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 19 of 431 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 10 of 431 occurrencesPleistocene — about 312 of 431 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 1 occurrence36–34 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–33 Mya — about 1 occurrence33–31 Mya — about 1 occurrence31–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–28 Mya — about 1 occurrence28–26 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–15 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–9.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences9.8–8.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.2–6.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences6.5–4.9 Mya — about 7 occurrences4.9–3.3 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.3–1.6 Mya — about 25 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 369 occurrences41.03 Mya11.7 ka49 Mya0 Mya

431 occurrences of Strigidae 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

431 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

21 formations

facies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EQuercy Phosphorites — 44.27°N, 1.63°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.73°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WVogel River Series — 3.21°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EEdelény — 48.39°N, 20.64°EBorgloon — 50.85°N, 4.82°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°EHillgrove — 45.13°S, 170.97°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.27°EBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WBatesland — 43.13°N, 101.87°WWaimanalo — 21.30°N, 158.10°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WPampean — 38.20°S, 59.12°WDetritic-Carbonated Unit of Subirats — 41.42°N, 1.81°ELiushu — 35.85°N, 102.50°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Strigidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 394 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Strigidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Strigidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,138 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 269 sites for Strigidae, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

160 references

Each of the 431 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. 148 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 content2

Picture of Strigidae

Credit
Wolfgang Wander
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
bcbirds
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itStrigiformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Vigors 1825