Hesperornithiformes

Hesperornithes is an extinct and highly specialized group of aquatic avialans closely related to the ancestors of modern birds. They inhabited both marine and freshwater habitats in the Northern Hemisphere, and include genera such as Hesperornis, Baptornis, Parahesperornis, Enaliornis, and Potamornis, all strong-swimming, predatory divers. Many of the species most specialized for swimming were completely flightless. The largest known hesperornithean, Canadaga arctica, may have reached a maximum adult length of 2.2 metres (7.2 ft).

Hesperornithiformes

Loozrboy from Toronto, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
OrnithuraePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 64 million years on record.

The record covers at least 137.05 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 123 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 123 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 120 of 123 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 123 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 2 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 3 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 3 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 4 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 9 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 20 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 20 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 20 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 20 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 9 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 7 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 3 occurrences137.05 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

123 occurrences of Hesperornithiformes 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

123 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

34 formations

Pierre Shale — 49.18°N, 98.10°WPierre Shale — 49.22°N, 98.20°WPierre Shale — 49.33°N, 98.31°WNiobrara — 39.00°N, 101.00°WNiobrara — 39.35°N, 99.88°WNiobrara — 38.75°N, 101.05°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 101.77°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 101.18°WNiobrara — 38.75°N, 100.21°WNiobrara — 38.87°N, 100.82°WNiobrara — 38.79°N, 100.76°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.00°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.40°N, 103.65°WPierre Shale — 44.00°N, 103.25°WPierre Shale — 43.07°N, 103.53°WPierre Shale — 43.01°N, 103.30°WPierre Shale — 43.58°N, 103.20°WKanguk — 79.75°N, 85.60°WKanguk — 73.50°N, 79.00°WKanguk — 76.28°N, 91.20°WBelle Fourche — 53.21°N, 103.52°WRybushka — 44.68°N, 39.08°ERybushka — 51.25°N, 45.36°EGault — 51.73°N, 2.37°WAshville — 53.48°N, 102.24°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WSmoking Hills — 69.72°N, 129.00°WMason River — 69.72°N, 129.00°WForemost — 53.25°N, 105.08°WCarlile — 49.48°N, 98.44°WJudith River — 48.97°N, 110.55°WJudith River — 50.50°N, 107.83°WZhuravlevskaya — 52.46°N, 64.63°EClaggett — 47.73°N, 109.62°WGreenhorn Limestone — 39.00°N, 98.92°WLos Alamitos — 41.95°S, 66.33°WLower Bauxite — 46.95°N, 22.40°EIgnek — 69.42°N, 148.27°WFrenchman — 49.06°N, 107.28°W

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The named rock units Hesperornithiformes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hesperornithiformes and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

542 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 91 sites for Hesperornithiformes, 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

56 references

Each of the 123 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. 44 further references are not listed. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Hesperornithiformes

Credit
Loozrboy from Toronto, Canada
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
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
Hesperornithiformes indet. · ua:lvp:16262

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 itOrnithurae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fürbringer 1888