Albertosaurus

Albertosaurus is a genus of large tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in northwestern North America during the Latest Campanian to middle Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period, about 71 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which the genus is named, although an indeterminate species has been discovered in the Corral de Enmedio and Packard Formations of Mexico. Scientists disagree on the content of the genus and some recognize Gorgosaurus libratus as a second species.

A picture published with the record for Albertosaurus.

WehaveaTrex · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Also called
Alberta lizardPBDB
Sits inside
AlbertosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
10 mWikidata
Mass
2.5 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 20 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 85.7 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 32 of 32 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 32 occurrences86–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences81–81 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 2 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 2 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 2 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 2 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences86.2 Mya65.5 Mya

32 occurrences of Albertosaurus 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

32 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

9 formations

Horseshoe Canyon — 51.82°N, 112.98°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.54°N, 112.82°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.44°N, 112.70°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.93°N, 112.93°WHorseshoe Canyon — 52.00°N, 112.88°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.55°N, 112.87°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.45°N, 113.55°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.46°N, 112.67°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.74°N, 112.97°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.26°N, 113.81°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.65°N, 112.90°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.55°N, 112.88°WJudith River — 49.10°N, 109.50°WJudith River — 50.50°N, 107.83°WCorral de Enmedio — 31.08°N, 109.61°WCorral de Enmedio — 31.14°N, 109.81°WScollard — 51.80°N, 112.98°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WFruitland — 36.29°N, 108.23°WKirtland — 36.27°N, 108.17°WJudith River — 48.93°N, 110.58°WOldman — 50.69°N, 111.62°W

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The named rock units Albertosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Albertosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

132 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Albertosaurus, 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

23 references

Each of the 32 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. 11 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 content2

Picture of Albertosaurus

Credit
WehaveaTrex
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
kenchoo
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 itAlbertosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Osborn 1905