Azhdarchoidea

Azhdarchoidea is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Pterosaurs belonging to this group lived throughout the Early and Late Cretaceous periods, with one tentative member, Tendaguripterus, that lived in the Late Jurassic period. Remains of this group have been found in the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia, suggesting that they probably had a global distribution.

Azhdarchoidea

A Cynical Idealist · 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
PterodactyloideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 77 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 5 of 180 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 74 of 180 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 101 of 180 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 180 occurrences154–151 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences151–148 Mya — about 1 occurrence148–145 Mya — about 2 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 1 occurrence142–139 Mya — about 2 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 3 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 3 occurrences133–130 Mya — about 3 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 3 occurrences127–124 Mya — about 5 occurrences124–121 Mya — about 6 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 12 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 15 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 11 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 3 occurrences109–106 Mya — about 2 occurrences106–103 Mya — about 3 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 4 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 8 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 8 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 6 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 4 occurrences88–85 Mya — about 3 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 8 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 8 occurrences79–76 Mya — about 8 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 8 occurrences73–70 Mya — about 14 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 18 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 7 occurrences149.2 Mya72.2 Mya154 Mya64 Mya

180 occurrences of Azhdarchoidea 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

180 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

76 formations

Jiufotang — 40.59°N, 119.43°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.44°EJiufotang — 41.43°N, 120.04°EJiufotang — 41.42°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 41.53°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.16°ERomualdo — 7.18°S, 39.73°WRomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WJavelina — 29.40°N, 103.20°WJavelina — 29.25°N, 103.25°WJavelina — 29.29°N, 103.53°WCrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WCrato — 7.00°S, 39.00°WLianmuqin — 46.04°N, 85.79°ELianmuqin — 46.10°N, 85.67°ELianmuqin — 43.55°N, 87.26°ETsagaantsav — 45.30°N, 101.62°ETsagaantsav — 48.75°N, 92.60°ECouche III — 32.88°N, 6.62°WCouche III — 32.83°N, 6.23°WSebeş — 45.98°N, 23.57°ESebeş — 47.38°N, 22.29°ETwo Medicine — 47.77°N, 112.29°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.07°N, 113.00°WZhirkindek — 46.22°N, 64.15°EDensuș-Ciula — 45.62°N, 22.78°ERybushka — 52.47°N, 44.93°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°EIfezouane — 30.90°N, 3.87°WPhosphorite Unit — 32.02°N, 36.03°EVitoria — 42.66°N, 2.63°WCsehbánya — 47.22°N, 17.60°EDoushan — 36.98°N, 120.71°EYalovach — 40.49°N, 69.70°EGrès à Reptiles — 43.35°N, 2.95°EWessex — 50.62°N, 1.37°WWessex — 50.66°N, 1.13°WHudspeth — 43.27°N, 120.14°WHudspeth — 44.60°N, 120.17°WKhodzhakul — 42.33°N, 60.17°EKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EBissekty — 41.29°N, 61.50°EYixian — 41.80°N, 120.77°EYixian — 41.56°N, 120.82°E

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The named rock units Azhdarchoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 52 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Azhdarchoidea and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

892 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 137 sites for Azhdarchoidea, 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

133 references

Each of the 180 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. 121 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 Azhdarchoidea

Credit
A Cynical Idealist
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Azhdarchoidea 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 itPterodactyloidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Unwin 1992)