Flagellicaudata

Diplodocoidea is a superfamily of sauropod dinosaurs, which included some of the longest animals of all time, including slender giants like Supersaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Amphicoelias. Most had very long necks and long, whip-like tails; however, one family are the only known sauropods to have re-evolved a short neck, presumably an adaptation for feeding low to the ground. This adaptation was taken to the extreme in the highly specialized sauropod Brachytrachelopan. A study of snout shape and dental microwear in diplodocoids showed that the square snouts, large proportion of pits, and fine subparallel scratches in Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Nigersaurus, and Rebbachisaurus suggest ground-height nonselective browsing; the narrow snouts of Dicraeosaurus, Suuwassea, and Tornieria and the coarse scratches and gouges on the teeth of Dicraeosaurus suggest mid-height selective browsing in those taxa. This taxon is also noteworthy because diplodocoid sauropods had the highest tooth replacement rates of any vertebrates, as exemplified by Nigersaurus, which had new teeth erupting every 30 days.

Flagellicaudata

Greg Tadek Kurpaski from London, Poland Derivative: User:MathKnight Marco Kabacchi stu_spivack Public domain · 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
Sits inside
DiplodocimorphaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 35 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 125.77 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 121.4 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 315 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 315 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 299 of 315 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 14 of 315 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous176–174 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences174–172 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences172–170 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences170–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences167–165 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences165–163 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences163–161 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences161–159 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences159–157 Mya — about 2 occurrences157–155 Mya — about 2 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 23 occurrences154–152 Mya — about 38 occurrences152–150 Mya — about 52 occurrences150–148 Mya — about 53 occurrences148–146 Mya — about 53 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 48 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 28 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 1 occurrence137–135 Mya — about 2 occurrences135–133 Mya — about 2 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences131–130 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences130–128 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences126–124 Mya — about 2 occurrences124–122 Mya — about 2 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences161.5 Mya125.77 Mya176 Mya120 Mya

315 occurrences of Flagellicaudata on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. 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

315 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

16 formations

Morrison — 42.04°N, 106.39°WMorrison — 39.65°N, 105.19°WMorrison — 42.15°N, 105.92°WMorrison — 42.02°N, 106.05°WMorrison — 43.38°N, 108.12°WMorrison — 43.63°N, 108.20°WMorrison — 40.42°N, 109.21°WMorrison — 35.20°N, 107.13°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.30°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 39.13°N, 108.73°WMorrison — 45.25°N, 108.75°WMorrison — 36.21°N, 103.63°WMorrison — 35.56°N, 106.77°WMorrison — 38.45°N, 107.40°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.04°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.06°WMorrison — 39.24°N, 109.00°WMorrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 44.54°N, 107.78°WMorrison — 44.65°N, 107.82°WMorrison — 41.97°N, 106.29°WMorrison — 43.65°N, 106.78°WMorrison — 36.90°N, 102.83°WMorrison — 36.93°N, 102.97°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 106.81°WMorrison — 45.54°N, 110.62°WMorrison — 44.47°N, 103.31°WMorrison — 44.53°N, 103.83°WMorrison — 44.18°N, 103.34°WMorrison — 44.46°N, 104.73°WMorrison — 44.25°N, 104.41°WMorrison — 45.45°N, 108.10°WMorrison — 35.58°N, 106.94°WMorrison — 41.92°N, 106.36°WMorrison — 42.15°N, 105.89°WMorrison — 44.23°N, 103.38°WMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.78°WMorrison — 42.18°N, 106.32°WMorrison — 38.25°N, 110.81°WMorrison — 38.97°N, 109.32°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 41.98°N, 106.15°WMorrison — 44.65°N, 107.88°WMorrison — 38.50°N, 109.00°WMorrison — 45.22°N, 108.83°WMorrison — 44.02°N, 104.24°WMorrison — 36.10°N, 110.23°WMorrison — 38.85°N, 108.48°WMorrison — 39.15°N, 108.77°WMorrison — 42.63°N, 105.44°WMorrison — 43.24°N, 104.29°WMorrison — 40.46°N, 108.39°WMorrison — 44.04°N, 106.42°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°WMorrison — 39.32°N, 110.69°WMorrison — 38.71°N, 109.74°WMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.87°WMorrison — 37.53°N, 103.68°WMorrison — 41.73°N, 106.27°WTendaguru — 9.71°S, 39.23°ETendaguru — 9.66°S, 39.25°ELourinhã — 39.22°N, 9.34°WLourinhã — 39.85°N, 8.62°WLourinhã — 39.25°N, 9.22°WLourinhã — 39.33°N, 9.36°WLourinhã — 39.35°N, 9.06°WLourinhã — 39.29°N, 9.34°WLa Amarga — 39.48°S, 70.19°WKirkwood — 33.75°S, 25.40°EKirkwood — 33.44°S, 25.45°EMulichinco — 38.50°S, 70.26°WKadzi — 16.27°S, 30.80°EBajada Colorada — 39.82°S, 69.67°WToqui — 46.65°S, 72.38°WFreixial — 39.09°N, 9.40°WFreixial — 39.18°N, 9.33°WCañadón Calcáreo — 43.22°S, 69.10°WOxford Clay — 52.54°N, 0.24°WVillar del Arzobispo — 40.12°N, 1.15°WHuérteles — 41.93°N, 2.18°WPraia da Amoreira-Porto Novo — 39.20°N, 9.34°WSüntel — 51.90°N, 10.48°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Flagellicaudata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Flagellicaudata and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Flagellicaudata and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

337 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 214 sites for Flagellicaudata, 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

130 references

Each of the 315 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. 118 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 Flagellicaudata

Credit
Greg Tadek Kurpaski from London, Poland Derivative: User:MathKnight Marco Kabacchi stu_spivack Public domain
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itDiplodocimorpha through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Harris and Dodson 2004