Alexornithiformes

Alexornis is an extinct genus of enantiornithine birds from the Late Cretaceous aged La Bocana Roja Formation of Baja California, Mexico. This geological formation has been dated to the Cenomanian and Turonian ages, about 93.6 mya. The type and only known species is Alexornis antecedens. The scientific name as a whole means "Alex's ancestral bird"; Alexornis from the given name of ornithologist Alexander Wetmore + Ancient Greek ornis, "bird", and antecedens, Latin for "going before" or "ancestral".

Alexornithiformes

Luxquine · 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
EnantiornithesPBDB
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 least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 21 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 19 of 21 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 21 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 3 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 5 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 5 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences100.5 Mya72.2 Mya107.1 Mya65.2 Mya

21 occurrences of Alexornithiformes on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

21 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

7 formations

Bissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EToolebuc — 23.12°S, 140.58°EToolebuc — 23.27°S, 140.51°ELa Bocana Roja — 30.05°N, 115.73°WŞard — 46.03°N, 23.55°ENemegt — 43.57°N, 100.48°EKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EEl Gallo — 30.06°N, 115.77°W

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

Alexornithiformes and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Alexornithiformes and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

143 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Alexornithiformes, 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

12 references

Each of the 21 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 Alexornithiformes

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

No 3D scan of Alexornithiformes 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 itEnantiornithes through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brodkorb 1976