Liliensternus

Liliensternus is an extinct genus of basal neotheropod dinosaur that lived approximately 210 million years ago during the latter part of the Triassic Period in what is now Germany. Liliensternus was a bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore, that could grow up to 5.15 m (16.9 ft) long; however, this size estimate is based on specimens now believed to be subadults, and possible fragmentary remains indicate an adult length of 7 to 9 meters. It is the best represented Triassic theropod from Europe and one of the largest known.

Liliensternus

Ghedoghedo · 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
NeotheropodaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
5 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 26 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 227.3 Mya and 201.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Triassic — about 5 of 5 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 5 occurrences228–227 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences227–226 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences226–225 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences225–224 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences224–223 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences223–222 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences222–222 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences222–221 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences221–220 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences220–219 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences219–218 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences218–217 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences217–216 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences216–215 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences215–214 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences214–213 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences213–213 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences213–212 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences212–211 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences211–210 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences210–209 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences209–208 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences208–207 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences207–206 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences206–205 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–204 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences204–203 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences203–202 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences202–201 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences227.8 Mya200.9 Mya

5 occurrences of Liliensternus on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. 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

5 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

3 formations

Trossingen — 51.90°N, 11.07°ETrossingen — 49.52°N, 11.13°ETrossingen — 50.38°N, 10.55°EKlettgau — 47.50°N, 8.02°ELöwenstein — 48.07°N, 8.65°E

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

Liliensternus and its relatives

Late Triassic

Where Liliensternus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.

Found in the same rock

35 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Liliensternus, 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

4 references

Each of the 5 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 content1

Picture of Liliensternus

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

No 3D scan of Liliensternus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itNeotheropoda through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Welles 1984