Gansus yumenensis

Gansus is a genus of aquatic avialans that lived during the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) period in what are now Gansu and Liaoning provinces, western China. The rock layers from which their fossils have been recovered are dated to 120 million years ago. It was first described in 1984 on the basis of an isolated left leg. It is the oldest-known member of the Ornithurae, the group which includes modern birds (Neornithes) and extinct related groups, such as Ichthyornis and Hesperornithes.

Gansus yumenensis

三猎 · 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
GansusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At most 8.2 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 121.4 Mya and 113.2 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEarly Cretaceous122–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences118–118 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences118–118 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences118–117 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences117–117 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences117–117 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences116–116 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences116–116 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences114–114 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences114–114 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121.9 Mya112.7 Mya

1 occurrence of Gansus yumenensis on record, most of them in the Early 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

1 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

1 formation

Xiagou — 39.86°N, 96.78°E

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

Gansus yumenensis and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Gansus yumenensis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

14 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Gansus yumenensis, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 content2

Picture of Gansus yumenensis

Credit
三猎
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Gansus yumenensis · ivpp:v:21693

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 itGansus through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hou and Liu 1984