Paralititan

Paralititan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in present-day Egypt during the Late Cretaceous period. It was described by American paleontologist Joshua B. Smith and colleagues in 2001. The genus contains a single species, Paralititan stromeri, named based on a fragmentary skeleton including vertebrae and limb bones. These fossils were unearthed by an American expedition to the Bahariya Oasis in western Egypt in rock layers of the Bahariya Formation. This formation dates to the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, which lasted 101 to 94 million years ago. An incomplete dorsal (back) vertebra that had been described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1932 was also assigned to Paralititan. However, this vertebra had been destroyed during the Bombing of Munich in World War II.

Paralititan

Hatem Moushir · 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
LithostrotiaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda
Length
28 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 6.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 100.5 Mya and 93.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 2 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 2 occurrencesLate Cretaceous101–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences101 Mya93.4 Mya

2 occurrences of Paralititan 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

2 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

Baharîje — 28.34°N, 28.98°E

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The named rock units Paralititan has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Paralititan and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

12 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Paralititan, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 2 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 Paralititan

Credit
Hatem Moushir
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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

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 itLithostrotia through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Smith et al. 2001