Edmontosaurus

Edmontosaurus, often colloquially and historically known as Anatosaurus or Anatotitan, is a genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It contains two known species: Edmontosaurus regalis and Edmontosaurus annectens. Fossils of E. regalis have been found in rocks of western North America that date from the late Campanian age of the Cretaceous period 73 million years ago, while those of E. annectens were found in the same geographic region from rocks dated to the end of the Maastrichtian age, 66 million years ago. Edmontosaurus was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs ever to exist, and lived alongside dinosaurs like Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus shortly before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

A picture published with the record for Edmontosaurus.

MCDinosaurhunter · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
EdmontosauriniPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
13 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 24 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 89.8 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 85 of 85 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 85 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences89–89 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 10 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 10 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 10 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 10 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 10 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 10 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 10 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 4 occurrences90.3 Mya65.5 Mya

85 occurrences of Edmontosaurus 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

85 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

Hell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 45.14°N, 102.50°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.53°N, 101.63°WHell Creek — 48.06°N, 105.40°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.64°N, 106.70°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 47.54°N, 107.17°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 106.76°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 46.09°N, 100.63°WHell Creek — 47.75°N, 106.20°WHell Creek — 45.06°N, 103.45°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 106.80°WHell Creek — 46.29°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.66°N, 107.34°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.12°WHell Creek — 47.64°N, 106.57°WHell Creek — 47.34°N, 108.22°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 101.97°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 47.70°N, 106.23°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 102.19°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 47.19°N, 104.97°WHell Creek — 47.10°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 42.58°N, 105.39°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.91°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.59°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.34°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.61°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.58°WLance — 42.97°N, 105.53°WLance — 45.10°N, 104.92°WLance — 45.48°N, 104.19°WLance — 45.33°N, 103.98°WLance — 44.61°N, 107.98°WLance — 43.44°N, 104.41°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.55°N, 112.87°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.65°N, 112.91°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.45°N, 113.55°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.46°N, 112.67°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.34°N, 113.89°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.61°N, 112.89°WFrenchman — 49.04°N, 106.60°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WLaramie — 40.91°N, 104.76°WLaramie — 40.29°N, 106.86°WSt. Mary River — 49.91°N, 112.99°WSchrader Bluff — 69.37°N, 152.14°WWapiti — 55.09°N, 119.99°WMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WPrince Creek — 69.83°N, 151.52°W

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The named rock units Edmontosaurus 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.

Edmontosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

454 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 84 sites for Edmontosaurus, 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

51 references

Each of the 85 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. 39 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 content3

Picture of Edmontosaurus

Credit
MCDinosaurhunter
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Edmontosaurus annectens · SMM:P:83.14.1C

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itEdmontosaurini through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lambe 1917