Ornithothoraces

Ornithothoraces is a group of avialan dinosaurs that includes all enantiornithes and the euornithes, which includes modern birds and their closest ancestors. The name Ornithothoraces means "bird thoraxes". This refers to the modern, highly advanced anatomy of the thorax that gave the ornithothoracines superior flight capability compared with more primitive avialans. This anatomy includes a large, keeled breastbone, elongated coracoids and a modified glenoid joint in the shoulder, and a semi-rigid rib cage. In spite of this at least the sternum seems to have developed convergently rather than being a true homology.

Ornithothoraces

Di Liu, Luis M. Chiappe, Francisco Serrano, Michael Habib, Yuguang Zhang, Qinjing Meng · CC BY 2.5 · 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
AvialaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 1372 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 1372 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 133 of 1372 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 294 of 1372 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 1372 occurrencesEocene — about 30 of 1372 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 12 of 1372 occurrencesMiocene — about 85 of 1372 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 52 of 1372 occurrencesPleistocene — about 446 of 1372 occurrences172–166 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences160–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 1 occurrence137–132 Mya — about 1 occurrence132–126 Mya — about 6 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 51 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 56 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 11 occurrences109–103 Mya — about 3 occurrences103–97 Mya — about 12 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 23 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 18 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 69 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 70 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 71 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 34 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences57–51 Mya — about 10 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 8 occurrences46–40 Mya — about 4 occurrences40–34 Mya — about 6 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 7 occurrences29–23 Mya — about 5 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 14 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 27 occurrences11–5.7 Mya — about 41 occurrences5.7–0 Mya — about 820 occurrences165.3 Mya11.7 ka172 Mya0 Mya

1,372 occurrences of Ornithothoraces on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

1,372 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

167 formations

Jiufotang — 41.42°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 41.40°N, 119.98°EJiufotang — 43.64°N, 120.43°EJiufotang — 41.50°N, 121.22°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.16°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.47°EJiufotang — 41.60°N, 120.42°EJiufotang — 41.25°N, 120.03°EJiufotang — 41.53°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 40.65°N, 119.69°EJiufotang — 41.75°N, 120.00°EJiufotang — 40.81°N, 119.80°EJiufotang — 40.59°N, 119.58°EJiufotang — 41.24°N, 119.40°EJiufotang — 40.59°N, 119.43°EJiufotang — 40.99°N, 119.68°EJiufotang — 40.91°N, 119.50°EJiufotang — 41.36°N, 120.05°EJiufotang — 40.71°N, 120.84°EPierre Shale — 49.18°N, 98.10°WPierre Shale — 49.22°N, 98.20°WPierre Shale — 49.14°N, 98.22°WPierre Shale — 49.33°N, 98.31°WVogel River Series — 3.20°S, 35.22°EVogel River Series — 3.01°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.25°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.23°S, 36.19°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EYixian — 41.13°N, 121.14°EYixian — 41.58°N, 119.33°EYixian — 41.88°N, 116.56°EYixian — 41.47°N, 121.19°EYixian — 41.56°N, 120.82°EYixian — 41.37°N, 121.42°EYixian — 41.80°N, 120.78°EYixian — 41.24°N, 119.40°EYixian — 41.60°N, 120.98°EYixian — 41.33°N, 119.13°EYixian — 41.49°N, 119.00°EYixian — 40.75°N, 120.83°ENiobrara — 39.00°N, 101.00°WNiobrara — 39.35°N, 99.88°WNiobrara — 39.57°N, 99.30°WNiobrara — 38.75°N, 101.05°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 101.77°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 101.18°WNiobrara — 38.78°N, 100.93°WNiobrara — 38.75°N, 100.21°WNiobrara — 38.87°N, 100.82°WNiobrara — 38.91°N, 101.27°WNiobrara — 38.77°N, 100.77°WNiobrara — 38.85°N, 100.17°WNiobrara — 38.60°N, 96.05°WNiobrara — 38.47°N, 100.47°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EMaevarano — 15.90°S, 46.58°ELecho — 26.07°S, 65.37°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.49°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.30°WDinosaur Park — 49.96°N, 110.27°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WMooreville Chalk — 32.92°N, 88.11°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.42°N, 87.20°WMooreville Chalk — 32.40°N, 87.14°WMooreville Chalk — 32.97°N, 88.04°WMooreville Chalk — 33.25°N, 88.16°WMooreville Chalk — 32.82°N, 88.05°WXiagou — 39.86°N, 96.78°Efacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.00°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 45.40°N, 103.65°WBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 101.13°EBaruungoyot — 43.52°N, 109.12°EBaruungoyot — 43.15°N, 99.45°EBaruungoyot — 43.47°N, 99.83°EBaruungoyot — 43.25°N, 99.75°EHuajiying — 41.20°N, 116.65°EHuajiying — 40.37°N, 116.36°EHuajiying — 41.00°N, 117.49°EBelle Fourche — 53.21°N, 103.52°WChorrillo — 50.49°S, 72.55°WChorrillo — 50.52°S, 72.56°WLondon Clay — 51.39°N, 0.84°ELondon Clay — 51.64°N, 0.78°ELondon Clay — 51.85°N, 1.28°ELa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WBajo de la Carpa — 38.95°S, 68.23°WNubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EKanguk — 79.75°N, 85.60°WKanguk — 73.50°N, 79.00°WKanguk — 76.28°N, 91.20°WKanguk — 79.39°N, 92.18°WDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EDjadokhta — 44.23°N, 103.29°EPierre 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°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ornithothoraces has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 143 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 829 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ornithothoraces and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ornithothoraces and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

4,270 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 865 sites for Ornithothoraces, and this reads 240 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

592 references

Each of the 1,372 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. 580 further references are not listed. 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 Ornithothoraces

Credit
Di Liu, Luis M. Chiappe, Francisco Serrano, Michael Habib, Yuguang Zhang, Qinjing Meng
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ornithothoraces 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 itAvialae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Chiappe and Calvo 1994