Coloborhynchus

Coloborhynchus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur belonging to the family Anhangueridae, though it has also been recovered as a member of the Ornithocheiridae in some studies. Coloborhynchus is known from the Lower Cretaceous of England, and depending on which species are included, possibly the Albian and Cenomanian ages as well. Coloborhynchus was once thought to be the largest known toothed pterosaur, however, a specimen of the closely related Tropeognathus is now thought to have had a larger wingspan.

Coloborhynchus

Borja Holgado and Rodrigo V. Pêgas · 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
ColoborhynchinaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 32 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 139.1 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 5 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 5 occurrencesLate Cretaceous140–138 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences134–132 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences126–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences132.6 Mya100.5 Mya140 Mya93 Mya

5 occurrences of Coloborhynchus on record. 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

5 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

Wessex — 50.64°N, 1.44°WIfezouane — 30.90°N, 3.87°W

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The named rock units Coloborhynchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

9 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Coloborhynchus, 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

5 references

Each of the 5 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 content2

Picture of Coloborhynchus

Credit
Borja Holgado and Rodrigo V. Pêgas
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Coloborhynchus clavirostris · NHMUK:PAL:PV R 1822

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itColoborhynchinae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1874