Dryptosaurus

Dryptosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in the present-day East Coast of the United States during the Late Cretaceous period. The type, and only, species, D. aquilunguis was described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1866 as Laelaps aquilunguis, however the genus name was preoccupied by a mite. As a result, Cope's rival in the Bone Wars, Othniel Marsh, replaced the genus name with Dryptosaurus. Dryptosaurus is known from a single, fragmentary skeleton including parts of the mandible, limbs, and vertebrae. These fossils were unearthed by fertilizer miners in New Jersey in rock layers of the New Egypt Formation. This formation dates to the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, around 67 to 66 million years ago. Several other fragmentary remains have been assigned to Dryptosaurus, however their referral is uncertain.

Dryptosaurus

Skye McDavid · CC BY 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
TyrannosauroideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
6.4 mWikidata

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 113.2 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 13 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 12 of 13 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 13 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–70 Mya — about 2 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 2 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences100.5 Mya72.2 Mya114.1 Mya65.1 Mya

13 occurrences of Dryptosaurus 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

13 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

7 formations

Lance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.25°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.23°N, 104.50°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WNew Egypt — 39.73°N, 75.16°WPaluxy — 31.41°N, 100.63°WNavesink — 40.31°N, 74.22°WMount Laurel — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMerchantville — 40.28°N, 74.38°W

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

Dryptosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

258 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Dryptosaurus, 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

6 references

Each of the 13 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 content3

Picture of Dryptosaurus

Credit
Skye McDavid
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Dryptosaurus aquilungus · NHMUK:PAL:PV OR 50100

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itTyrannosauroidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1877