Dendroolithus

Dendroolithus is an oogenus of Dendroolithid dinosaur egg found in the late Cenomanian Chichengshan Formation, in the Gong-An-Zhai and Santonian Majiacun Formations of China and the Maastrichtian Nemegt and Campanian Barun Goyot Formation of Mongolia. They can be up to 162 mm long and 130 mm wide. These eggs may have been laid by a Therizinosaur, Sauropod, or Ornithopod. The oospecies "D." shangtangensis was originally classified as Dendroolithus, however, it has since been moved to its own distinct oogenus, Similifaveoloolithus. This oogenus is related with embryos of the theropod Torvosaurus.

Dendroolithus

Stickpen · 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
PhaceloolithidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

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 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 23 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 23 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 22 of 23 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 23 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 3 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 5 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–70 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100.5 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

23 occurrences of Dendroolithus 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

23 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

10 formations

Zhaoying — 33.23°N, 111.67°EBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EBaruungoyot — 43.25°N, 99.75°EBaruungoyot — 42.51°N, 105.25°EBaruungoyot — 43.47°N, 101.52°EDongyuan — 23.71°N, 114.71°EZoumagang — 33.27°N, 111.68°EGong-An-Zhai — 31.30°N, 113.42°EMajiacun — 33.30°N, 111.48°EBaynshire — 44.27°N, 109.91°EChichengshan — 29.16°N, 121.01°ENemegt — 43.47°N, 99.83°EGaogou — 33.06°N, 111.27°E

Loading coastlines…

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

Dendroolithus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

78 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Dendroolithus, 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

9 references

Each of the 23 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Dendroolithus

Credit
Stickpen
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dendroolithus 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 itPhaceloolithidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhao and Li 1988