Troodon

Troodon is a controversial genus of relatively small, bird-like theropod dinosaurs definitively known from the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous period. It includes at least one species, Troodon formosus, known from Montana. Discovered in October 1855, T. formosus was among the first dinosaurs found in North America, although it was thought to be a lizard until 1877.

A picture published with the record for Troodon.

Montanoceratops · CC0 · 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
TroodontiniPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Troodontidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Troodontidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Troodontidae

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 103 of 103 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 103 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 4 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 4 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 4 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 4 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 4 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 4 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 4 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 4 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 4 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 4 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 4 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 4 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 4 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 4 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 4 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 4 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 4 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 4 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 3 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 3 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 3 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 3 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 3 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 3 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 3 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 3 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

103 occurrences of Troodon 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

103 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

15 formations

Dinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.50°WDinosaur Park — 50.79°N, 111.62°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 49.99°N, 111.42°WDinosaur Park — 51.44°N, 110.39°WDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.30°WDinosaur Park — 50.72°N, 111.56°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.16°N, 110.72°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 49.28°N, 112.58°WOldman — 50.72°N, 111.40°WOldman — 50.79°N, 111.62°WOldman — 50.73°N, 110.08°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.41°WOldman — 49.28°N, 112.20°WOldman — 49.36°N, 112.50°WJudith River — 46.47°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 47.81°N, 109.59°WJudith River — 46.10°N, 109.10°WJudith River — 46.40°N, 109.66°WJudith River — 47.77°N, 108.95°WJudith River — 47.72°N, 109.64°WJudith River — 48.54°N, 109.81°WJudith River — 43.64°N, 109.35°WJudith River — 46.42°N, 109.27°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 47.65°N, 106.65°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.18°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 106.18°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.48°N, 112.77°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.65°N, 112.90°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.41°N, 112.63°WHorseshoe Canyon — 55.46°N, 117.42°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.26°N, 113.81°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.49°N, 113.15°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.55°N, 112.87°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.45°N, 113.55°WTwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.65°N, 112.97°WTwo Medicine — 47.81°N, 112.18°WTwo Medicine — 47.82°N, 112.66°WTwo Medicine — 48.94°N, 112.64°WTwo Medicine — 47.77°N, 112.29°WPrince Creek — 70.07°N, 151.58°WPrince Creek — 69.60°N, 151.80°WPrince Creek — 70.09°N, 151.54°WPrince Creek — 69.83°N, 151.52°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.85°WFerris — 41.95°N, 106.89°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WUdurchukan — 49.08°N, 130.86°EUdurchukan — 50.27°N, 127.48°EWapiti — 55.25°N, 118.51°WWapiti — 55.06°N, 119.11°WSt. Mary River — 49.92°N, 112.99°WJudith River — 49.10°N, 109.50°WKakanaut — 62.87°N, 177.07°EYuliangzi — 48.86°N, 130.24°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Troodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Troodon and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

513 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 100 sites for Troodon, 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

45 references

Each of the 103 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. 33 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 content3

Picture of Troodon

Credit
Montanoceratops
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Troodon formosus · mor:MOR 553L 7-25-9-312

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itTroodontini through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leidy 1856