Pinacosaurus

Pinacosaurus is an extinct genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia and China during the Late Cretaceous. The genus contains two species; the type species, Pinacosaurus grangeri, was named in 1933 based on fossils found in 1923. A second species, Pinacosaurus hilwitnorum, was named in 2026. An additional species, originally placed in this genus, P. mephistocephalus, was later transferred to its own genus, Eopinacosaurus.

Pinacosaurus

Kabacchi · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikidata/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
AnkylosaurinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
5 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 24 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 24 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 23 of 24 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 24 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 1 occurrence83–80 Mya — about 5 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 5 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 5 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 5 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100.5 Mya83.6 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

24 occurrences of Pinacosaurus 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

24 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

7 formations

Djadokhta — 44.16°N, 103.69°EDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.26°N, 103.30°EDjadokhta — 44.23°N, 103.30°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EDjadokhta — 44.09°N, 102.91°EDjadokhta — 44.52°N, 103.15°EBayan Mandahu — 41.70°N, 106.76°EBayan Mandahu — 41.80°N, 106.74°EBaruungoyot — 44.44°N, 109.78°EBaruungoyot — 42.51°N, 105.25°EJiangjunding — 36.92°N, 120.62°EÖösh — 44.24°N, 102.73°EAlagteeg — 44.26°N, 103.30°EWulansuhai — 39.22°N, 101.67°E

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The named rock units Pinacosaurus 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.

Pinacosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

88 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 23 sites for Pinacosaurus, 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

18 references

Each of the 24 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. 6 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 content2

Picture of Pinacosaurus

Credit
Kabacchi
Licence
CC BY 2.0
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 itAnkylosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gilmore 1933