Ornithocheirus

Ornithocheirus is a pterosaur genus known from fragmentary fossil remains uncovered from sediments in the United Kingdom and possibly Morocco.

A picture published with the record for Ornithocheirus.

Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner · CC BY 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
OrnithocheiroideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 25 million years on record.

The record covers at least 125.77 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 132.6 Mya to 89.8 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 8 of 12 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 4 of 12 occurrencesLate Cretaceous133–132 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125.77 Mya100.5 Mya133.5 Mya88.9 Mya

12 occurrences of Ornithocheirus 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

12 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

4 formations

West Melbury Marly Chalk — 52.20°N, 0.13°ECalcaires à Spatangues — 48.53°N, 4.93°EZig Zag Chalk — 51.33°N, 0.48°EIfezouane — 30.90°N, 3.87°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ornithocheirus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ornithocheirus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Ornithocheirus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

57 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Ornithocheirus, 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

12 references

Each of the 12 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 content3

Picture of Ornithocheirus

Credit
Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Ornithocheirus sp. · NHMUK:PAL:PV R 2278

3D model

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

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 itOrnithocheiroidea through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1869