Hesperornis regalis

Hesperornis regalis

Quadell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
HesperornisPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Hesperornis
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Hesperornis
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB, for Hesperornithiformes

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 89.8 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 20 of 20 occurrencesLate Cretaceous90–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences88–88 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences87–87 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 1 occurrence83–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–81 Mya — about 1 occurrence81–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–80 Mya — about 1 occurrence80–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–77 Mya — about 1 occurrence77–77 Mya — about 1 occurrence77–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–75 Mya — about 1 occurrence75–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences90.3 Mya71.7 Mya

20 occurrences of Hesperornis regalis 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

20 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

5 formations

Pierre Shale — 49.22°N, 98.20°WPierre Shale — 49.18°N, 98.10°WPierre Shale — 49.33°N, 98.31°WForemost — 53.25°N, 105.08°WCarlile — 49.48°N, 98.44°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 101.18°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 103.30°W

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The named rock units Hesperornis regalis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hesperornis regalis and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Hesperornis regalis and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

24 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Hesperornis regalis, 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

6 references

Each of the 20 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 Hesperornis regalis

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

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHesperornis through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1872