Caenagnathus

Caenagnathus is a genus of caenagnathid oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period. It is known from partial remains including lower jaws, a tail vertebra, hand bones, hind limbs, and pelvis, all found in the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada.

Caenagnathus

Gregory Funston · CC BY 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
Sits inside
CaenagnathinaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, depth=surfacePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Oviraptorosauria

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 8 of 8 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

8 occurrences of Caenagnathus 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

8 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

2 formations

Dinosaur Park — 50.74°N, 111.51°WDinosaur Park — 50.80°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 50.76°N, 111.49°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 101.97°W

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

Caenagnathus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

31 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Caenagnathus, 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

3 references

Each of the 8 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. 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 Caenagnathus

Credit
Gregory Funston
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Caenagnathus 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 itCaenagnathinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sternberg 1940