Zapsalis

Zapsalis is a genus of dromaeosaurine theropod dinosaurs. It is a tooth taxon, often considered dubious because of the fragmentary nature of the fossils, which include teeth but no other remains.

Zapsalis

Derek W. Larson, Philip J. Currie · 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
DromaeosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 83.6 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 85.7 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 7 of 7 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences86–86 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 2 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 2 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83.6 Mya72.2 Mya86.2 Mya65.5 Mya

7 occurrences of Zapsalis 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

7 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

3 formations

Milk River — 49.10°N, 111.80°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WHell Creek — 47.63°N, 106.20°W

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

Zapsalis and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

177 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Zapsalis, 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

2 references

Each of the 7 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Zapsalis

Credit
Derek W. Larson, Philip J. Currie
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Zapsalis was found in Sketchfab.

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 itDromaeosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1876