Kritosaurus

Kritosaurus is an incompletely known genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur. It lived about 74.5-66 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of North America. The name means "separated lizard", but is often mistranslated as "noble lizard" in reference to the presumed "Roman nose".

Kritosaurus

Ryan Somma · 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
KritosauriniPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
8 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 83.6 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 85.7 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 25 of 25 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 25 occurrences86–86 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 1 occurrence83–82 Mya — about 1 occurrence82–81 Mya — about 1 occurrence81–81 Mya — about 1 occurrence81–80 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 occurrence75–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–72 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83.6 Mya72.2 Mya86.2 Mya65.5 Mya

25 occurrences of Kritosaurus 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

25 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

Kirtland — 36.27°N, 108.17°WKirtland — 36.30°N, 108.04°WKirtland — 36.33°N, 108.08°WFruitland — 36.49°N, 108.51°WFruitland — 36.26°N, 108.17°WFruitland — 36.16°N, 108.06°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.29°N, 108.10°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.84°N, 107.77°WAguja — 29.13°N, 103.20°WAguja — 29.21°N, 103.04°WMilk River — 49.08°N, 111.44°WJavelina — 29.31°N, 103.14°WJavelina — 29.03°N, 103.25°WJudith River — 46.28°N, 109.51°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Kritosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

55 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Kritosaurus, 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

10 references

Each of the 25 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 Kritosaurus

Credit
Ryan Somma
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
matt687
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itKritosaurini through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brown 1910