Elongatoolithus

Elongatoolithus is an oogenus of dinosaur eggs found in the Late Cretaceous formations of China and Mongolia. Like other elongatoolithids, they were laid by small theropods, and were cared for and incubated by their parents until hatching. They are often found in nests arranged in multiple layers of concentric rings. As its name suggests, Elongatoolithus was a highly elongated form of egg. It is historically significant for being among the first fossil eggs given a parataxonomic name.

Elongatoolithus

Eduard Solà · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
ElongatoolithidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 49 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 91 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 91 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 88 of 91 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 91 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 3 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 5 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 10 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 10 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 10 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 10 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 12 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 12 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 5 occurrences121.4 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

91 occurrences of Elongatoolithus 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

91 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

24 formations

Zhutian — 25.22°N, 114.53°EZhutian — 25.24°N, 114.59°EPingling — 25.23°N, 114.49°EPingling — 25.09°N, 114.28°EPingling — 25.13°N, 114.41°EYuanpu — 25.13°N, 114.41°EYuanpu — 25.24°N, 114.59°EDjadokhta — 42.08°N, 102.17°EDjadokhta — 44.20°N, 103.27°EDjadokhta — 44.15°N, 103.72°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°EDjadokhta — 44.16°N, 103.69°EDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EZhenshui — 25.22°N, 114.53°EZhaoying — 33.23°N, 111.69°EZhaoying — 33.18°N, 111.80°EJingangkou — 36.89°N, 120.66°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.01°ENemegt — 43.85°N, 100.48°ENemegt — 43.48°N, 100.37°EGaogou — 33.02°N, 111.40°ESubashi — 44.69°N, 90.07°ESubashi — 43.07°N, 91.84°EFenshui'ao — 28.96°N, 111.53°EBaruungoyot — 45.85°N, 108.40°EBaruungoyot — 43.51°N, 101.06°EChichengshan — 29.14°N, 121.03°EChichengshan — 29.16°N, 121.01°EBayan Mandahu — 41.80°N, 106.74°EEl Castellar — 40.66°N, 0.86°WDaijiaping — 26.80°N, 113.55°EDonggou — 43.90°N, 86.50°ESanshui — 23.20°N, 113.27°EWulansuhai — 39.22°N, 101.67°EOhyamashimo — 35.08°N, 135.11°EHekou — 25.82°N, 114.97°EDongyuan — 23.79°N, 114.75°EZoumagang — 33.28°N, 111.68°EMajiacun — 33.01°N, 111.26°E

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

Elongatoolithus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

131 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 75 sites for Elongatoolithus, 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 91 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 content1

Picture of Elongatoolithus

Credit
Eduard Solà
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Elongatoolithus 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 itElongatoolithidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhao 1975