Pteranodontidae

The Pteranodontidae are a family of large pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of North America and possibly other continents including Europe and Africa. The family was named in 1876 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Pteranodontids had a distinctive, elongated crest jutting from the rear of the head. The spectacularly-crested Nyctosaurus is sometimes included in this family, though usually placed in its own family, the Nyctosauridae.

Pteranodontidae

Kenn Chaplin from Toronto, Canada · CC BY-SA 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
PteranodontiaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 41 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 119.57 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 4 of 15 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 11 of 15 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 15 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences93–91 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89–87 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences113.2 Mya72.2 Mya121 Mya65 Mya

15 occurrences of Pteranodontidae 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

15 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

9 formations

Rybushka — 51.35°N, 45.04°ERybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ERomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WCouche III — 32.88°N, 6.62°WCouche III — 32.92°N, 6.65°WChulec — 9.87°S, 76.95°WToolebuc — 22.92°S, 140.58°EChico — 39.62°N, 121.53°WMikasa — 43.17°N, 141.83°EPierre Shale — 43.30°N, 103.82°WNiobrara — 38.64°N, 100.17°W

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The named rock units Pteranodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pteranodontidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

89 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Pteranodontidae, 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

13 references

Each of the 15 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. 1 further reference is 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 Pteranodontidae

Credit
Kenn Chaplin from Toronto, Canada
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Pteranodontidae indet. · amnh:farb:5819

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 itPteranodontia through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Marsh 1876)