Oviraptorosauria

Oviraptorosaurs are a group of feathered bipedal maniraptoran dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia and North America. They are distinct for their characteristically short, beaked, parrot-like skulls, with or without bony crests atop the head. They ranged in size from Caudipteryx, which was the size of a turkey, to the 8-meter-long, 1.4-ton Gigantoraptor. The group is close to the ancestry of birds. Some researchers such as Maryanska et al. (2002) and Osmólska et al. (2004) have proposed that they may represent primitive flightless birds. The most complete oviraptorosaur specimens have been found in Asia. The North American oviraptorosaur record is sparse.

Oviraptorosauria

Jordi Payà EvaK Kondo Atsushi Michael Shehan Obeysekera Jonathan Chen · CC BY 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
ManiraptoraPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwelling, depth=surfacePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 119.57 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 15 of 193 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 178 of 193 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 193 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 2 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 2 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 2 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 1 occurrence100–98 Mya — about 1 occurrence98–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–94 Mya — about 1 occurrence94–92 Mya — about 4 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 4 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 2 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 14 occurrences81–79 Mya — about 14 occurrences79–77 Mya — about 14 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 14 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 14 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 22 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 29 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 29 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 12 occurrences119.57 Mya72.2 Mya127 Mya65 Mya

193 occurrences of Oviraptorosauria 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

193 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

46 formations

Hell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 46.36°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.12°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.42°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.87°N, 106.18°WHell Creek — 47.10°N, 104.66°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 45.87°N, 103.79°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.98°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 101.97°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 47.05°N, 107.35°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 44.71°N, 103.06°WDinosaur Park — 50.79°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.13°N, 111.69°WDinosaur Park — 50.76°N, 110.02°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.56°WDinosaur Park — 51.95°N, 112.93°WDinosaur Park — 52.08°N, 112.98°WDinosaur Park — 50.70°N, 111.27°WDinosaur Park — 50.84°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.40°WNemegt — 43.49°N, 101.28°ENemegt — 43.58°N, 107.78°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.01°ENemegt — 44.07°N, 102.67°ENemegt — 43.85°N, 100.14°ENemegt — 43.48°N, 100.36°ENemegt — 43.47°N, 99.83°ENemegt — 43.82°N, 99.98°ENemegt — 43.60°N, 100.46°ENemegt — 43.53°N, 101.04°ENemegt — 43.50°N, 100.33°ENemegt — 43.54°N, 99.60°EDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.13°N, 103.56°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EDjadokhta — 42.08°N, 102.17°EBaruungoyot — 43.25°N, 99.75°EBaruungoyot — 43.57°N, 103.52°EBaruungoyot — 43.30°N, 99.60°EBaruungoyot — 43.51°N, 101.06°EBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 99.83°EBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.14°N, 103.20°WAguja — 29.30°N, 103.57°WAguja — 29.36°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.41°N, 103.30°WYixian — 41.80°N, 120.73°EYixian — 41.60°N, 120.91°EYixian — 40.65°N, 119.68°EYixian — 39.88°N, 123.44°EHekou — 25.82°N, 114.93°EHekou — 25.87°N, 115.00°EHekou — 25.82°N, 114.97°ECloverly — 46.34°N, 109.69°WCloverly — 44.98°N, 108.32°WCloverly — 45.26°N, 108.41°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WIren Dabasu — 43.55°N, 111.87°EIren Dabasu — 43.74°N, 112.11°EIren Dabasu — 43.74°N, 112.15°EFrenchman — 49.05°N, 106.58°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WFrenchman — 50.21°N, 107.37°WWapiti — 55.11°N, 120.89°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°WBayan Mandahu — 41.80°N, 106.74°EBayan Mandahu — 41.70°N, 106.76°EHarebell — 43.96°N, 110.41°WHarebell — 43.84°N, 110.41°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WPingling — 24.95°N, 114.07°EPingling — 25.11°N, 114.32°EFuxin — 42.00°N, 121.69°EQiupa — 34.02°N, 111.65°EQiupa — 34.05°N, 111.63°EOjo Alamo — 36.29°N, 108.10°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.59°N, 112.82°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.49°N, 112.81°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.57°N, 101.33°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.51°N, 101.34°WDongyuan — 23.77°N, 114.73°ELecho — 26.07°S, 65.37°W

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The named rock units Oviraptorosauria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Oviraptorosauria and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

747 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 172 sites for Oviraptorosauria, 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

120 references

Each of the 193 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. 108 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 Oviraptorosauria

Credit
Jordi Payà EvaK Kondo Atsushi Michael Shehan Obeysekera Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Oviraptorosauria was found in Sketchfab.

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 itManiraptora through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Barsbold 1976