Edmontosaurus annectens

Edmontosaurus annectens, often colloquially and historically known as Anatotitan, is a species of flat-headed saurolophine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian age at the very end of the Cretaceous period, in what is now western North America. Remains of E. annectens have been preserved in the Frenchman, Hell Creek, and Lance Formations. All of these formations are dated to the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period, which represents the last three million years before the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. E. annectens is also found in the Laramie Formation, and magnetostratigraphy suggests an age of 69–68 Ma for the Laramie Formation.

Edmontosaurus annectens

Kevin Walsh from Bicester, England · CC BY 2.0 · 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
EdmontosaurusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

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 30 of 30 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 30 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 2 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 0.6 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

30 occurrences of Edmontosaurus annectens 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

30 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

Hell Creek — 47.68°N, 106.43°WHell Creek — 45.14°N, 102.50°WHell Creek — 45.53°N, 101.63°WHell Creek — 48.06°N, 105.40°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 47.54°N, 107.17°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 46.29°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.70°N, 106.23°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.05°N, 102.19°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 47.19°N, 104.97°WHell Creek — 47.10°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WLance — 42.58°N, 105.39°WLance — 43.17°N, 104.91°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.59°WLance — 43.34°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.61°WLance — 42.97°N, 105.53°WLance — 44.61°N, 107.98°WLance — 43.44°N, 104.41°WFrenchman — 49.04°N, 106.60°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Edmontosaurus annectens has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Edmontosaurus annectens and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Edmontosaurus annectens and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

190 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Edmontosaurus annectens, 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

24 references

Each of the 30 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. 12 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 Edmontosaurus annectens

Credit
Kevin Walsh from Bicester, England
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

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 itEdmontosaurus through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Marsh 1892)