Threskiornithidae

The family Threskiornithidae includes 35 extant species of large wading birds, and one more that became extinct in historical times. The family has been traditionally classified into two subfamilies, the ibises and the spoonbills; however, recent genetic studies have cast doubt on this arrangement, and have found the spoonbills to be nested within the Old World ibises, and the New World ibises as an early offshoot. These studies found two major clades within the family, a widespread clade that includes the type genus Threskiornis and seven other genera occurring in both the Old and New Worlds, and a smaller group of entirely New World species, with five genera.

Threskiornithidae

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
ibisPBDB
Sits inside
PelecaniformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
volantPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 51 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 88 occurrencesEocene — about 5 of 88 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 88 occurrencesMiocene — about 4 of 88 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 88 occurrencesPleistocene — about 39 of 88 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 70 occurrences51.1 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

88 occurrences of Threskiornithidae 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

88 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

18 formations

Gabal Silsila — 24.77°N, 32.95°EGabal Silsila — 24.43°N, 32.95°ETamiami — 27.78°N, 82.68°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WLondon Clay — 51.85°N, 1.28°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EGebel Silsila-YCS — 24.50°N, 33.00°ERexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WMessel — 49.93°N, 8.73°EDam — 25.98°N, 49.39°EAlachua — 29.55°N, 82.52°WPondaung — 21.75°N, 94.65°EYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WSanta Cruz — 50.00°S, 70.00°WOkeechobee — 27.53°N, 80.47°WGreen River — 41.87°N, 110.68°WPampean — 38.20°S, 59.12°WAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°E

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The named rock units Threskiornithidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 64 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Threskiornithidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Threskiornithidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,014 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 75 sites for Threskiornithidae, 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

57 references

Each of the 88 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. 45 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 content1

Picture of Threskiornithidae

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Threskiornithidae 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 itPelecaniformes through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Richmond 1917