Megapodius fossil map
Where fossils of Megapodius have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 0 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 0 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Prehistoric birds |
|---|---|
| Lived | 0.129 million years ago to the present (Late Pleistocene to Holocene) |
| Periods | Quaternary |
| Family | Megapodiidae |
| Named by | Gaimard 1823 |
| Fossil records | 54 occurrences at 27 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | Tonga, Fiji, Northern Mariana Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, American Samoa, Niue, Guam … |
| Rock formations | txn:39335 |
About Megapodius
The scrubfowl are mound-builders (stocky, medium-large chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae) in the genus Megapodius. They are found from Southeast Asia to northern Australia and islands in the west Pacific.
They do not incubate their eggs with their body heat in the orthodox way, but bury them. They are best known for building a massive mound of decaying vegetation, which the male attends, adding or removing litter to regulate the internal heat while the eggs hatch.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Scrubfowl (revision 1381499164), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q777396.
