Aerosaurus

Aerosaurus

Uncredited · via Wikidata/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
VaranodontinaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 303.7 Mya and 286 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 2 of 3 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 1 of 3 occurrencesPermian304–304 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences304–303 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences303–302 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences302–302 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences302–301 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences301–300 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences300–300 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences300–299 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences299–299 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences299–298 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences298–297 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences297–297 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences297–296 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences296–295 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences295–295 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences295–294 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences294–294 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences294–293 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences293–292 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences292–292 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences292–291 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences291–290 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences290–290 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences290–289 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences289–289 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences289–288 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences288–287 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences287–287 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences287–286 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences286–286 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences304.2 Mya285.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Aerosaurus on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

3 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

2 formations

  • Cutler FormationNew Mexico · US · 303.7–298.9 Mya2
  • Abo/Cutler FormationNew Mexico · US · 303.7–286 Mya1
Cutler — 36.31°N, 106.35°WAbo/Cutler — 36.16°N, 106.64°W

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

Aerosaurus and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Aerosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

26 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Aerosaurus, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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 Aerosaurus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Aerosaurus 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itVaranodontinae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Romer 1937