Cimolopteryx

Cimolopteryx is a prehistoric bird genus from the Late Cretaceous Period. It is currently thought to contain only a single species, Cimolopteryx rara. The only specimen confidently attributed to C. rara was found in the Lance Formation of Wyoming, dating to the end of the Maastrichtian age, which ended about 66 million years ago. The dubious species "Cimolopteryx" maxima has been described from both the Lance Formation and the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. The humeral end of a left coracoid from the Frenchman Formation of southern Saskatchewan has also been attributed to the genus.

Cimolopteryx

Marsh · Public Domain · 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
CimolopterygidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Charadriiformes

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 6 of 6 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 6 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

6 occurrences of Cimolopteryx 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

6 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

4 formations

Lance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFrenchman — 49.30°N, 108.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.49°W

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

Cimolopteryx and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

175 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Cimolopteryx, 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

5 references

Each of the 6 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 Cimolopteryx

Credit
Marsh
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cimolopteryx 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 itCimolopterygidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1889