Aerosteon riocoloradensis

Aerosteon is a genus of megaraptoran dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of Argentina. Its remains were discovered in 1996 in the Anacleto Formation, which is from the late Campanian. The type and only known species is A. riocoloradensis. Its generic name can be translated as "air bone" and derives from Greek ἀήρ and ὀστέον, whereas its specific name indicates that its remains were found 1 km north of the Río Colorado, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. The genus shows evidence of a bird-like respiratory system.

Aerosteon riocoloradensis

C. Abraczinskas · 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
AerosteonPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At most 12 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 72.2 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceLate Cretaceous84–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences81–81 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences78–78 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences76–76 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences73–73 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences73–73 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences84.1 Mya71.7 Mya

1 occurrence of Aerosteon riocoloradensis 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

1 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

1 formation

Anacleto — 37.13°S, 69.33°W

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

Aerosteon riocoloradensis and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Aerosteon riocoloradensis and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

3 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Aerosteon riocoloradensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 Aerosteon riocoloradensis

Credit
C. Abraczinskas
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aerosteon riocoloradensis 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 itAerosteon through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sereno et al. 2008