Spheroolithus

Spheroolithus is an oogenus of dinosaur egg.

Spheroolithus

Daderot · Public Domain · 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
SpheroolithidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 3 of 38 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 35 of 38 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 38 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 1 occurrence98–96 Mya — about 1 occurrence96–94 Mya — about 1 occurrence94–92 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences84–82 Mya — about 3 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 3 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 3 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 3 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 3 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 3 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 3 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence110.1 Mya72.2 Mya123 Mya65 Mya

38 occurrences of Spheroolithus 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

38 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

20 formations

Two Medicine — 47.82°N, 112.66°WTwo Medicine — 47.71°N, 112.22°WOldman — 49.28°N, 112.58°WOldman — 49.14°N, 112.58°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WEl Gallo — 30.07°N, 115.78°WCedar Mountain — 38.64°N, 111.27°WCedar Mountain — 38.85°N, 111.15°WCedar Mountain — 38.94°N, 111.08°WBaruungoyot — 43.66°N, 107.84°EBaruungoyot — 44.44°N, 109.78°EDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.47°WJiangjunding — 36.93°N, 120.66°ENorth Horn — 39.17°N, 111.27°WQuantou — 42.88°N, 124.18°ELameta — 20.72°N, 78.32°ELameta — 20.68°N, 79.35°ECerro del Pueblo — 25.67°N, 101.30°WPingling — 25.25°N, 114.61°EJingangkou — 36.93°N, 120.73°EGaogou — 33.19°N, 111.79°EDjadokhta — 44.16°N, 103.69°EChichengshan — 29.15°N, 121.02°EOhyamashimo — 35.08°N, 135.11°EConques — 42.25°N, 0.74°ELa Posa — 42.27°N, 0.73°ENemegt — 43.60°N, 100.46°E

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The named rock units Spheroolithus 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.

Spheroolithus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

179 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Spheroolithus, 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

22 references

Each of the 38 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. 10 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 Spheroolithus

Credit
Daderot
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Spheroolithus 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 itSpheroolithidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhao 1979