Archaeorhynchus spathula

Archaeorhynchus is a genus of beaked avialans from the early Cretaceous period. A fossil of its only known species, Archaeorhynchus spathula, was first reported in 2005 by Zhou & Zhang to have been found in Yixian Formation rocks at Yixian, Liaoning province, China, showing a well-preserved and essentially complete skeleton. Two more complete specimens were found in Lower Cretaceous deposits of Jianchang, Liaoning, northeastern China, preserving new anatomical information. These deposits are 120 million years old, whereas the original specimen was 125 million years old, meaning the age range for this species is 125-120Ma.

Archaeorhynchus spathula

Jonathan Chen · 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
ArchaeorhynchusPBDB
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 most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 125.77 Mya and 113.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–124 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126.3 Mya112.7 Mya

2 occurrences of Archaeorhynchus spathula on record, most of them in the Early 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

2 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

Yixian — 41.53°N, 121.25°EJiufotang — 40.81°N, 119.80°E

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

Archaeorhynchus spathula and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Archaeorhynchus spathula and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

13 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Archaeorhynchus spathula, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Archaeorhynchus spathula

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

No 3D scan of Archaeorhynchus spathula 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 itArchaeorhynchus through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhou and Zhang 2006