Caenagnathidae

Caenagnathidae is a family of derived caenagnathoid dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of North America and Asia. They are a member of the Oviraptorosauria, and relatives of the Oviraptoridae. Like other oviraptorosaurs, caenagnathids had specialized beaks, long necks, and short tails, and would have been covered in feathers. The relationships of caenagnathids were long a puzzle. The family was originally named by Raymond Martin Sternberg in 1940 as a family of flightless birds. The discovery of skeletons of the related oviraptorids revealed that they were in fact non-avian theropods, and the discovery of more complete caenagnathid remains revealed that Chirostenotes pergracilis, originally named on the basis of a pair of hands, and Citipes elegans, originally thought to be an ornithomimid, named from a foot, were caenagnathids as well.

Caenagnathidae

Kabacchi · CC BY 2.0 · 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
OviraptorosauriaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, depth=surfacePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Oviraptorosauria

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 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 3 of 111 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 108 of 111 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 111 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 1 occurrence94–92 Mya — about 3 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 3 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 7 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 9 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 9 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 9 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 9 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 9 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 13 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 14 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 14 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 6 occurrences100.5 Mya72.2 Mya123 Mya65 Mya

111 occurrences of Caenagnathidae 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

111 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

24 formations

Hell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.36°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.12°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.42°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.87°N, 106.18°WHell Creek — 47.10°N, 104.66°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 45.87°N, 103.79°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.98°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 101.97°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 47.05°N, 107.35°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 44.71°N, 103.06°WDinosaur Park — 50.79°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.13°N, 111.69°WDinosaur Park — 50.76°N, 110.02°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.56°WDinosaur Park — 51.95°N, 112.93°WDinosaur Park — 50.70°N, 111.27°WDinosaur Park — 50.84°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.40°WAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.14°N, 103.20°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WAguja — 29.36°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.41°N, 103.30°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.01°ENemegt — 43.53°N, 101.04°ECloverly — 46.34°N, 109.69°WCloverly — 44.98°N, 108.32°WCloverly — 45.26°N, 108.41°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WFrenchman — 49.05°N, 106.58°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WFrenchman — 50.21°N, 107.37°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WIren Dabasu — 43.55°N, 111.87°EIren Dabasu — 43.74°N, 112.11°EOjo Alamo — 36.29°N, 108.10°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.59°N, 112.82°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.49°N, 112.81°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.57°N, 101.33°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.51°N, 101.34°WKaiparowits — 37.65°N, 111.86°WTwo Medicine — 48.94°N, 112.64°WBostobe — 45.95°N, 64.65°EBaynshire — 44.41°N, 109.84°EHongtuya — 36.00°N, 119.41°EGaogou — 33.26°N, 111.73°EDensuș-Ciula — 45.60°N, 22.85°EMesaverde — 42.85°N, 107.28°WCedar Mountain — 38.66°N, 111.23°WScollard — 51.95°N, 112.94°WKirtland — 36.27°N, 108.17°W

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

Caenagnathidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

494 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 100 sites for Caenagnathidae, 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

53 references

Each of the 111 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. 41 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 Caenagnathidae

Credit
Kabacchi
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Caenagnathidae 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 itOviraptorosauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sternberg 1940