Thescelosauridae

Thescelosauridae is a clade of small-medium sized bipedal neornithischians from the Cretaceous of East Asia and North America. The group was originally used as a name by Charles M. Sternberg in 1937, but was not formally defined until 2013, where it was used by Brown and colleagues as the group uniting Thescelosaurus and Orodromeus, based on their phylogenetic results.

Thescelosauridae

Ben Jacobson ( Kranar Drogin ) · CC BY 2.5 · 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
NeornithischiaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

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 14 of 111 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 97 of 111 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 111 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–121 Mya — about 1 occurrence121–119 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 3 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 3 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 3 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 3 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 3 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 3 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 5 occurrences81–79 Mya — about 5 occurrences79–77 Mya — about 5 occurrences77–75 Mya — about 5 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 5 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 13 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 19 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 19 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 8 occurrences119.57 Mya72.2 Mya127 Mya65 Mya

111 occurrences of Thescelosauridae 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

111 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

31 formations

Hell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 106.31°WHell Creek — 47.94°N, 106.19°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.81°N, 106.28°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 105.98°WHell Creek — 45.06°N, 103.45°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 45.60°N, 103.76°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 46.00°N, 103.19°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 45.00°N, 103.18°WLance — 45.48°N, 104.19°WLance — 47.79°N, 104.56°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WWayan — 43.14°N, 111.27°WWayan — 42.97°N, 111.27°WWayan — 43.16°N, 111.29°WTwo Medicine — 47.81°N, 112.18°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.65°N, 112.97°WTwo Medicine — 47.82°N, 112.66°WTwo Medicine — 48.91°N, 112.64°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 49.04°N, 110.69°WOldman — 50.78°N, 110.50°WCedar Mountain — 38.71°N, 111.20°WCedar Mountain — 38.63°N, 111.25°WCedar Mountain — 39.12°N, 110.85°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.47°WHorseshoe Canyon — 50.90°N, 111.80°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.71°N, 112.93°WCloverly — 45.49°N, 108.73°WCloverly — 44.65°N, 107.88°WCloverly — 44.51°N, 107.90°WCloverly — 44.50°N, 107.82°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.89°WFerris — 41.96°N, 106.89°WYixian — 41.60°N, 120.91°EYixian — 41.78°N, 120.76°EYixian — 41.41°N, 119.12°EFrenchman — 49.04°N, 106.60°WFrenchman — 49.36°N, 108.46°WScollard — 52.33°N, 113.12°WScollard — 50.87°N, 112.99°WSeonso Conglomerate — 34.71°N, 127.20°EPrince Creek — 70.02°N, 151.59°WPrince Creek — 70.09°N, 151.50°WLaramie — 40.39°N, 104.49°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WFruitland — 36.27°N, 108.26°WJudith River — 49.10°N, 109.50°WMedicine Bow — 41.80°N, 107.00°WBlackleaf — 44.54°N, 112.60°WQuantou — 43.59°N, 124.89°EJavkhlant — 44.39°N, 109.35°EOldman — 49.18°N, 110.68°W

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The named rock units Thescelosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thescelosauridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

562 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 109 sites for Thescelosauridae, 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

60 references

Each of the 111 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. 48 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 Thescelosauridae

Credit
Ben Jacobson ( Kranar Drogin )
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thescelosauridae 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 itNeornithischia through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sternberg 1937