Ornitholestes

Ornitholestes is a small theropod dinosaur of the late Jurassic of Western Laurasia.

Ornitholestes

Etemenanki3 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
CompsognathidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
2 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 15 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 157.9 Mya and 143.1 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Jurassic — about 4 of 4 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 4 occurrences158–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences147–147 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences146–146 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences146–145 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences145–145 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158.4 Mya142.6 Mya

4 occurrences of Ornitholestes on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

4 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

1 formation

Morrison — 42.02°N, 106.05°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°W

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

Ornitholestes and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Ornitholestes and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

131 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Ornitholestes, 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 4 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 Ornitholestes

Credit
Etemenanki3
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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

MorphoSource 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 itCompsognathidae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Osborn 1903